Visual Management, Color Psychology, and Decision Making

There’s a lot of research into what factors affect our decision making. Most of the research is in the social sciences, such as sociology and economics, and more applied approaches toward user behavior and shopping behavior. Recent research into color and color psychology and how color affects our buying decisions is interesting and relevant.

This research is made available to us through a very informative infographic from KISSmetrics and Hiten Shah – who is one of the nicest people you’ll every meet.

From the perspective of Lean Thinking, Visual Management is critically important to what we do in helping organization improve how they operate, reduce or eliminate waste, and in making abnormalities visible. As you think about the lean implementation you’re involved in, consider color as a key aspect of your visual management efforts.

Here are a few highlights from the study:

• 93% of consumers place visual appearance above other factors when shopping.
• 85% of consumers indicate color as the primary reason for why they buy a particular item.
• Color increases brand recognition by 80%.
• Yellow = Optimistic and Youthful.
• Red = Energy, increases heart rate and urgency.
• Blue = Creates sensation of trust and security.
• Green = Associated with wealth and easiest color for the eyes to process.
• Orange = Aggressive, call to action.
• Pink = Romantic and feminine; used to market products to women and teens.
• Black = Strong and sleek; used to market luxury products or high-end items.
• Purple = Used to soothe and calm; often seen in beauty products or categories for the aged.

Please see the infographic below: