Any time you put out a piece of marketing collateral, color can play a significant role in determining the reaction you'll get from your target audience. A well chosen palette will enhance your message, while poor color decisions can lead to disastrous results.

Experts have written entire books on color; here I'll cover only the basics, explaining the importance of good color use and exploring the six major colors on the color wheel as they relate to advertising.

Evoking a response

In the world of advertising, color choices are all about evoking a response from your target audience. Whether you are advertising a specific product or service or simply promoting your company and its message, it's important to ask two questions:

• 1. What do I want my target audience to think?
• 2. How do I want them to feel?

The advantage to effective color use is its inherent subtlety. Good color use tells your target audience quite a lot without being manipulative or overbearing. It informs their intellect and affects their heart in ways of which they may or may not be consciously aware.

Adapting to cultural differences

It's important to note at this point that colors can carry with them completely different associations depending on the culture to which you're trying to appeal. For example, the color white represents purity and innocence to those of us in western cultures; but in China, white symbolizes death! For the purpose of the following exploration, I'll approach color from the perspective of western cultures.

Addressing the six

We'll focus here on the six major colors on the color wheel. Consider this a starting point to understanding color in advertising:

• Red is a color of passion; it can represent such extremes as unquenchable love or seething rage, but either way you're dealing with powerful emotions. The vibrancy of the color commands instant attention and elicits excitement in the viewer. Red is considered the sexiest of all colors; no surprise, then, that it is such a popular tool for marketers.
   
• Orange, like red, is vibrant and lively, but it is also very approachable due to its natural warmth. All of these attributes make it an excellent color for summer-related visuals. Orange also functions as an appetizing presence.
   
• Yellow, like the sun we see every day, is irresistibly optimistic. "Bright" and "cheery" are the most obvious descriptors. Yellow indicates creativity and intelligence and offers fantastic contrast to the color black, as evidenced in nature (bees, wasps) and the modern world (road signs).
   
• Green is most easily thought of in reference to nature, life, and growth due to its dominance in the natural world around us. Green, like blue, is easy on the eyes. Lighter shades convey a feeling of freshness; darker shades evoke a calming, comfortable spirit that make them perfect for companies whose success depends on their clients' trust.
   
• Blue is stable, soothing, and reliable, and therefore a color that people tend to be comfortable with. This is why blue shows up so often in the business world, even more so than green: it's a subtle way for corporations to communicate an image of dependability and trustworthiness to their customers or clients.
   
• Purple has been used throughout history to represent royalty and carries with it the idea of sophistication and calm dignity. In its lighter shades, purple becomes soft and delicate, taking on a notably feminine tone. Purple also bears a certain enigmatic quality that stems from its placement on the color spectrum. It borrows both the sensuality of red and the serenity of blue, creating a mysterious and somewhat conflicted combination.