The Implications of Color
For manufacturers and retailers, a bold splash of color isn’t just a way to make products more appealing, it’s a way to build their brands and impact profitability.
Consumer research consistently shows that a company’s logo and color scheme can be the determining factor in purchasing decisions. So for online retailers, looking good is feeling good.
According to a report in Entrepreneur magazine, researchers found that 62 percent to 90 percent of a customer’s snap judgments about a product are based on color alone, making color scheme one of the most important ways retailers can differentiate themselves from competitors. The rapid rise of eCommerce has extended the battle for brand recognition beyond store shelves and into the home, so for online retailers, it’s especially important to strategize how to create an unboxing experience unlike any other.
Using Color for Connection
Retailers are not only competing for consumer dollars, they’re competing for a finite supply of time and attention. It’s noted that color increases brand recognition by 80 percent, so smart, intentional use of color is essential in getting consumers to take notice.
A study into “brain branding” used MRI scans to determine how subjects’ brains reacted when they were shown the logos and color schemes of well-known and lesser-known brands. The better-known brands activated areas of the brain involved in positive emotional processing and associated with self-identification and rewards. In addition, subjects’ brains processed the stronger brands with less effort.
In essence, consumers’ brains seemed to know what to expect from stronger brands and didn’t have to work as hard to evaluate them, so purchasing from these brands is literally an easier decision. This accentuates the need for retailers to constantly assess the way they can go about strengthening their brands.
“As eCommerce continues to grow, brands have less opportunity to physically connect with their customers, oftentimes making the first connection when the product is delivered. In most cases, that product is wrapped with packaging that's clear or neutral, offering the protection needed, but not really enhancing the unboxing experience." – Pregis Product Manager Clint Smith
Breaking Away from the Pack
In repeatedly reinforcing brand connection with the customer at every touchpoint, retailers can sow the seeds of customer lifetime value. As an online retailer, standing out during the unboxing experience is crucial to staying ahead of the competition. Unexpected in the sea of standard protective packaging, the use of attention-grabbing color can increase a brand’s ubiquity and provide customers with an unboxing experience that is consistently – and unexpectedly – rewarding.
Brands can also capture customers’ attention by boldly using color to defy conventional marketing strategies. Choosing unexpected colors allows brands to employ a marketing concept called the “isolation effect,” whereby a product that breaks away from the expected will get noticed and remembered more than others.
Bringing Color to Unboxing
While they perform their essential duties well, standard envelopes, cushioning and poly bags represent a missed opportunity to elevate a brand and connect with consumers. By incorporating unexpected hues into their protective packing supplies, retailers can delight their customers in an unexpected way.
Pregis offers ways for brands to earn the loyalty of their customers through the use of color:
- Poly Bags and Mailers. These can be custom printed with brand messaging and robust designs, in up to eight different colors, to WOW customers in an unexpected way.
- Hybrid Cushioning. The first color offered in Pregis’ Inspyre line of protective packaging was blue to support its Uzima initiative, but new colors, such as black and pink, are being added to in-stock supplies. In addition, a wide spectrum of precise colors can be created using PMS color match.
Every parcel is a chance for a retailer to make a statement and reinforce its brand identity and personality. And colored protective packaging materials can send a message to customers that the product in their hands is too special to be treated like all the others.
Read Unboxing Expectations: How Product Packaging Affects Customer Emotions to learn more about the unboxing experience and customer expectations, emotion and perceptions.
