This week we have been asked to build our own brands and write our first blog. I have been thinking about what says ‘Ruth’ in a nutshell and I came up with Walkers Ready Salted Crisps…Worrying, I’m sure! For me, it isn’t just Ready Salted crisps, it’s the brand Walkers. In a blind-folded taste test I’m pretty sure I could tell you which were Walkers and which were imposters. However, when I’m actually using my eyes, I could tell you from just a flash of the red Walkers packet colour whether those crisps were Walkers Ready Salted or whether they were a different brand. Tavassoli (2001) suggest that I am not alone in my specific links to certain colour as many people differentiate between brand extensions or copycats from the colour alone. This is surely an important factor for businesses to note!
Colour plays a big part in my life, in all our lives in fact! Just the other day someone asked me what colour the Bangor University Peer Guide polo shirts were. My reply? Cadbury’s purple! A colour that we all know well! Also, I know a graphic designer employed by Shell who was asked to overhaul the Shell garage logo to make it more appealing to customers. The reply from the graphic design company was that the Shell logo was too big a brand logo to change. Instead the suggestion was that they make the yellow in the logo slightly more ‘warm’. But not by much! Otherwise the customers wouldn’t know which petrol station it was! I am also a car fanatic. I love cars, providing they are in the right colour! Red for Ferrarri, yellow for Lambourghini, etc. Colour influences what I buy and what I think of a product.
Moore, Stammerjohan and Coulter (2005) suggest that colour in advertising needs to a. draw the consumers’ attention (for recall and recognition) and b. develop a good brand attitude for the consumer. For example, when looking at the picture of the garish green cash point advertisements that Caroline showed us last week in lecture, much of the class were concerned with how successful this advertisement was. It was suggested that the colour would provide a bad link to the brand and many people wouldn’t go and see what it was about!
Interestingly enough, although the red colour of Walkers crisps may evoke a specific ‘excited’ response in me when I see it on a crisp wrapper, if I saw it as part of a store layout, I wouldn’t be so impressed. Bellizzi and Hite (1992) suggest that red in a store is seen as negative and tense. So placement of colour seems to have a factor also! But more on that next week.
In conclusion, colour is important in our lives when we are shopping as it affects our choices. Another point to note is that if you see me with a bag of crisps, please remove them from me! There is no Crispaholic Anonymous yet!
ruthmarsden 
I have found your blog really interesting, and I agree with it! Where you said that if you bought a Ferrari it would have to be red, i feel this is the general opinion of most people! It is like it HAS to be red just because it is a Ferrari! (Why is this?) I feel that this is partly due to film and TV that we are swayed to want a red Ferrari and a yellow Lamborghini!
This alone really makes me think how the Ferrari cooperation has used this to their advantage!
I have seen lots of people with “Ferrari” notebooks that are also red! Is this another marketing concept which the company uses to promote the Ferrari?
The colour of things definitely has a huge influence on what we buy (myself especially) and if I recognise the colour of something I already know I like them I will definitely give that product/advertisement etc a look over.
I have really enjoyed reading your blog and look forward to your next post!
I find the use of colour really fascinating when it comes to branding, particularly when consumers differentiate between brands using only the colour. This piece of research http://www.unimib.it/upload/Articolo%20Ries%20rimpag-ingl2006.pdf which details the 22 Immutable Laws of Branding lists having the opposite colour to your competitor as one of the rules, ie Pepsi and Coke. I feel that this law could also be relevant to the colour of crisp packets, although in a different manner. Personally, as Walkers is the leading crisp brand, if I see for example a plain packet of crisps in a blue packet it confuses me greatly! Much like when Salt and Vinegar and Cheese and Onion are often swapped from blue to green!
I agree with you that colors really play a significant role in ones life as it is no secret that consumers place high importance on the visual stimuli of products over their smell, texture and sound. According to kissametrics which is a web analytical software designed to track consumer preferences, color of a communication i.e. packaging, advertising etc….increases the chances of brand recognition by 80%. However, I feel that this association could also work against the brand Especially in rural markets…take the example of rural / semi rural Indian markets were illiteracy rates are high, the brand color association plays a very important role in selling a product. However, it gives way for the local impostor brands to tap the local market with cheaper look alike substitutes…. While working on a rural marketing assignment for an advertising agency I came across a lot of these look alike brands….A very common phonie is the Cadbury look alike(cant remember what its called) but its got the exact shade of purple with a very similar logo…another one that I can think of is that of a chocolate called MUNCH the swindler calls itself “MUCH” with the same yellow and purple color scheme not to forget the coke con called Ko- Kola with the red logo…..( I wish I could give you some pictures to enjoy but apparently google still hasn’t got hold of these rip-offs)
According to Tack (2010), after shape, colour is the most powerful element in creating brand recognition. It is also the most subjective element because it triggers strong emotions and to further complicate the matter, individuals, as well as cultures, perceive colour differently.
Research has also shown that 60% of purchase decisions are based on colour! I can definitely admit that I do consider the colour of a product when I’m choosing between brands.
Sometimes that colour is not defined in the logo itself, but how it is applied to the overall brand to stimulate recognition. UPS utilises brown as their signature colour on vehicles and uniforms, and even verbally in their campaign slogan “What can Brown do for you?” similarly Tiffany’s is infamous for their little blue box. I think because of the impact that colour has on brand recognition I would definetely be able to figure a phoney product just by the colour of the product too!
I’m going off on a bit of a tangent here, but I also have colour perceptions of walkers crisps, but one that affects me in a negative way.
Growing up Cheese and onion flavour crisps would have a green packet and salt and vinegar would have had a blue packet. This is how I would have established my packet of crisps when I walked into the local newsagent with my week’s pocket money. Nowadays this has changed and Cheese and onion are now blue; whilst salt and vinegar are green. Even to this day after many years in which I should have established the new colour schemes for the crisps I still get confused in picking up a packet. I had shaped my perceptions early as a child to identify these flavour crisps with those colours.
Therefore colour is important in product identification. Interestingly the walkers seemed to have buried this information, and I had to struggle to find information on the internet to find out if this was true. I was starting to think I had imagined it.
This confusion in colours and flavours can sometimes frustrate me, and creates a negative perception towards the brand!
P.S. I tried to post in some images of the old packets but It didn’t work.