.jpg)
Marketing to women - with colour
Researchers have found that women, like men, prefer blue. But women have a preference for another colour on top of blue that men don't have.
They like pink.
Why?
Certainly, pink is not the favourite colour of all women. But it seems that women in general do gravitate towards reddish shades more than men.
Researcher, Anya Hurlbert of Newcastle University, UK, speculated that women might be more finely tuned to colour as they were the gatherers of food in early human society.
Ripe red fruits and berries would have been highly prized.
They like pink.
Why?
Certainly, pink is not the favourite colour of all women. But it seems that women in general do gravitate towards reddish shades more than men.
Researcher, Anya Hurlbert of Newcastle University, UK, speculated that women might be more finely tuned to colour as they were the gatherers of food in early human society.
Ripe red fruits and berries would have been highly prized.
Many websites use shades of blue as their dominant (or only) colour. Facebook, and many branches of Google certainly do. Anya Hulbert put forward the theory that blue is universally liked as it signals clear weather and is the colour of fresh water.
Women often seem to know the names of variations in colour - tangerine, violet, burgundy, beige, lime, burnt-orange, and so on - whereas men often do not focus on the variations. This fact would seem to follow on from the colour research.
So should you deck out your website in plain blue to please everyone? Use cool shades if marketing to men? Use warm shades if marketing to women?
Perhaps it's best to simply be aware of the effect of colours, and use them in an overall branding strategy.
To a lot of women, the look of anything that is too frilly, frothy and pink, can be off-putting. Your website may lose appeal for a wide spectrum of women if it looks 'too girly'. Young girls though, especially pre-teens, seem to adore pink. The best advice is to know your market.
But the fact that you rarely see strong colours such as black and yellow for a website marketed to women is for good reason. These colours, put together, don't make for a site that you would want to spend much time at. And women tend to like browsing. Strong colours are best suited to children, or suited to a site where web users know what they want, or where they decide and buy quickly. You might see strong black and yellow used at a hardware website for example.
Women generally take more time than men over decisions related to purchases - they like to compare, research and look carefully before buying. A website with soft colours is easier on the eye, and makes spending more time at a site easier.
When you are looking for a web designer to put your website together, take a good look at their work samples. Are their designs are sympathetic to the look you are trying to achieve for your website?
In general, if your website is carrying a lot of advertisements or products - the colours in your website template are often best being understated and minimal - too much colour can be confusing and can conflict with the main items on your pages.
Anni Taylor Copyright March 2008
Women often seem to know the names of variations in colour - tangerine, violet, burgundy, beige, lime, burnt-orange, and so on - whereas men often do not focus on the variations. This fact would seem to follow on from the colour research.
So should you deck out your website in plain blue to please everyone? Use cool shades if marketing to men? Use warm shades if marketing to women?
Perhaps it's best to simply be aware of the effect of colours, and use them in an overall branding strategy.
To a lot of women, the look of anything that is too frilly, frothy and pink, can be off-putting. Your website may lose appeal for a wide spectrum of women if it looks 'too girly'. Young girls though, especially pre-teens, seem to adore pink. The best advice is to know your market.
But the fact that you rarely see strong colours such as black and yellow for a website marketed to women is for good reason. These colours, put together, don't make for a site that you would want to spend much time at. And women tend to like browsing. Strong colours are best suited to children, or suited to a site where web users know what they want, or where they decide and buy quickly. You might see strong black and yellow used at a hardware website for example.
Women generally take more time than men over decisions related to purchases - they like to compare, research and look carefully before buying. A website with soft colours is easier on the eye, and makes spending more time at a site easier.
When you are looking for a web designer to put your website together, take a good look at their work samples. Are their designs are sympathetic to the look you are trying to achieve for your website?
In general, if your website is carrying a lot of advertisements or products - the colours in your website template are often best being understated and minimal - too much colour can be confusing and can conflict with the main items on your pages.
Anni Taylor Copyright March 2008
