The Color Red, The Great Manipulator

In advertising color matters.

In a media saturated world where advertisers have less than two seconds to grab our attention, the color red is the hot ticket. Famous marketing uses of red include Virgin, Coca Cola, Campbell's Soup, Target, and Netflix.

Neuromarketing has become so advanced, today's Mad Men (and women) can predict how consumers will behave, and buy.

Through the use of fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) researchers now have empirical evidence to show that red stimulates people to make quicker, and sometimes impulsive decisions-- one of the reasons why red is often the color of choice for casinos.

Red is an advancing color, meaning its going to step right up and slap you in the face. Red is inherently exciting to the human brain and has been found to be physically and emotionally arousing yet also distracting which is why I refer to red as the great manipulator.  

The color red can increase eye-blink rate, raise blood pressure and rate of respiration. This physiological response is unconditioned, meaning, we cannot help but become stimulated by red even when we don't realize it. If doctors' offices were painted red, the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture blood pressure drugs would be very happy.

When tobacco advertising was banned, tobacco companies had to come up with sneaky ways to get people to buy their product. They accomplished this through subliminal marketing and the color red. The Philip Morris company offered financial incentives to bars and lounges, referred to as "Marlboro Motels" to fill their venues with red upholstery, walls, and ashtrays.

Martin Lindstrom a branding expert writes in his book Buy‐ology about how Coca-Cola uses subliminal marketing to sell their product. On the TV show American Idol each of the three judges sits behind large red cups emblazoned with the Coca-Cola logo positioned toward the camera.

The soda maker was also responsible for the design of the lounge where contestants were interviewed between performances. In the elimination episodes, contestants were shown nervously awaiting their turn in the Coca-Cola lounge, perched on red and white sofa with gentle contours reminiscent of a Coca-Cola bottle. By flashing Coke's signature fire engine red in the background, people are more likely to get off the couch to grab a Coke. 

Red works beautifully in retail to highlight sales and promotions. However, if not used correctly in retail red can cause dissonance. Just as red beckons us to check out those sales, too much red may overly-stimulate buyers causing anxiety and tension, and we all know what happens then ... usually nothing gets purchased.

In 1983 Joseph Bellizzi conducted a survey using red and blue to examine the effect of color in retail store design. Red and blue were selected because of their opposite color properties. More positive retail outcomes occurred in blue rather than red environments suggesting that  an over-abundance of red can actually impede purchasing. 

The next time you are about to hit that 'bid now' button, take note of the webpage and banner color. According to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research the color red influences consumers to become more aggressive and bid higher. On the auction site eBay, the authors of the study state that buyers offered higher bids when the screen had a red background and lower bids when backgrounds were gray or blue. 

And here's where female food servers can out-earn their male counter-parts. One study found that male customers gave on average 20 percent higher tips to female food servers wearing red.  

The use of red in residential in homes exudes confidence and sophistication.   However, red should be reserved for non-sleeping rooms. 

Red is an excellent choice for dining rooms since time is limited to just a couple hours for each use. The red dining room trend that began some ten years ago is still extremely popular. The only rule with reds is to stay within the cool or warm margins of the other colors in your home. Reds can vary from rusty reds (orange-reds) to Rasberry reds (blue-reds).

I think the powder room, also called a guest bath is the perfect opportunity to display the other, unexpected side of your personality to your guests. Red walls are surprisingly compatible with many other colors such as robin egg blue, purple, celery green, and for ultra high drama, black and white. 

With little effort, your powder room just might become the talk of the party.