1. Friday, January 15, 2016
Bachelor of Business in International Business (NFQ Level 8)
The Influence of Colours in
Irish Customers Online
Buying Choices
Radu Acalfoaie

2. Colour is an important factor in our daily
existence and it has been known that can
influence emotions, perceptions and mod.
Hypothesis: Majority of Irish customer’s
online behaviour is influenced by Colours
psychology. Choosing the right colours
can help the business grow, increase
brand awareness and sales. Therefore
there is a market to create a colour
consultancy company who can guide
them choose influential colours
Introduction
Figure 1 Hue, Saturation and Value.
Gramillion, Ben. Three Properties of Colour.
Digital image. Webdesigner Depot

3. “To asses how colours influence Irish customer’s online buying choices”
To identify the motivation for online purchases and understand
customers behaviour.
To assess the level of awareness for influential colours in buying choices.
To define how important is colour for customers decisions and
businesses.
To evaluate how consultancy services for influential colours could be
beneficial for both customers and businesses.
To estimate if there is a market for colour consultancy services in Ireland.
Objectives

4. What is the level of awareness for influencing colours?
How colours can influence buyers?
What colours can influence buyers?
Are customers more likely to purchase when influenced by a
colour?
What are the costs to hire/employ/consult specialists?
How much are the companies willing to pay for colour pick
services?
Questions

5. Theory of Colours written by Goethe (1810) was one of the first books where
influence of colours warmth was described encompassing details about shadows,
refraction and chromatic aberration.
According to “What Brand Colors Say About Your Business – Marketo” Miller
(2012) colour is the first characteristic when first time notice a logo. In top 100
world companies, 29% use red for their logo, 33% blue, 28% black or grayscale
and only 13% use yellow. From those 95% use one or two color and only 5% use
more than 2 colours.
“How Colors Affect Conversion Rate”, Patel (2014). The writer discusses that
colours can influence brand recognition by 80% and 90% of the customers
purchases are influenced by visual factors in less than 90 seconds.
Literature review

6. Another study “Impact of color on marketing”, Singh (2006) has
exposed that some response to colours can be generalised and
other can differ for each individual, culture, age and gender.
One of the most important researches for this project is “The
Effect of Red Background Color on Willingness-to-pay: The
Moderating Role of Selling Mecha-nism”. The authors Bachi and
Cheema (2013) stated that traditional shops and websites use
different colours in influence customers choices and reactions
towards purchasing products when exposed.
Literature review

7. Quantitative –Qualitative, Survey via Survey Monkey
A semi structured self-administrated questionnaire was used by
the author to answer the research objectives, preserve
confidentiality, obtain accurate data and maximise the response
rate.
Questionnaire:10 closed-ended and semi open-ended questions
Sample of 29 respondents: females 48% and only 44% are males
Research Methods

8. 72% of the participants are shopping online
69% of participants are aware colour can
influence mod
62% consider colour important when making
a purchase
90 % consider colour consultancy services
beneficial
55.56% would employ colour consultants
50% estimated between 301-500 euro
Results

9. Retailers are using Color psychology in traditional
and online shops.
Colour psychology and motivation in the online
behaviour cannot be generalised.
Choosing the right colour for a shop, restaurant,
and website can connect with the right audience
and increase sales.
There is no specialised company for colour
consultancy brand development in Ireland.
However such services may not be required as
technology continues to develop.
Conclusion

10. Marketers should carefully choose and test what colours and variations
of hue, value and saturation are more beneficial to attract customers.
Each manager is directly responsible for finding testing and
implementing the right colours for their environment.
Generalising results from small samples of participants may lead to
untrue results that’s why a bigger sample is recommended.
Collection of qualitative data from interviews and focus groups should
also be encouraged for future researches
The duration of the research should be increased to allow enough time
for data gathering and analysing.
Recommendations

11. Bagchi, R., Cheema, A. , (2013). The Effect of Red Background Color on Willingness-to-Pay: The Moderating Role of
Selling Mechanism. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(5), 947–960. http://doi.org/10.1086/666466
Elliot A., J., (2015) Color and psychological functioning: a review of theoretical and empirical work. Front.
Psychol. 6:368. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00368
Goethe, W., Theory of Colours, trans. Charles Lock Eastlake, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982
Kissmetrics. 2010. How do colors affect purchases? [ONLINE] Available at: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/color-
psychology/. [Accessed 24 November 15]
Miler. 2012. What Brand Colors Say About Your Business – Marketo. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://blog.marketo.com/2012/06/true-colors-what-your-brand-colors-say-about-your-business.html. [Accessed 01
December 15].
Patel. 2014. How Colors Affect Conversion Rate. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.quicksprout.com/2014/01/24/how-colors-affect-conversion-rate/. [Accessed 21 December 15].
Bottomley P., A., Doyle, J., The interactive effects of colors and products on perceptions of brand logo
appropriateness doi: 10.1177/1470593106061263
Singh, S. (2006), Impact of Color on Marketing, Management Decision, Vol. 44, No. 6, pp. 783-789
Bibliography

12. Questions & Discussion