Objective

The primary objective of this study is to analyse how organisations choose a particular color for
branding/marketing their product or service and the impact this has created towards the
society/customers.

Research Questions

How do customers associate a particular color to a product or service?

Does the impact of color influence a buying decision of customers?

How a product or service is differentiated in the market based on color?

Literature Review

Gorn, Amitava , Tracey and Dahl (1997) identified that ads containing colors with a higher level
of value lead to greater liking for the ad, and this effect is mediated by the greater feelings of
relaxation elicited by the higher value color. Feelings play an equally important role in the effect
of chroma. There is a link between the chromatic strength of a color and the level of excitement
for the color. Since highly saturated colors have a higher percentage of the hue pigment in them
than desaturated colors, they are richer, more intense, and more striking. To prove this
hypothesis, three independent variables, namely: hue, chroma, and value were used. A total of
156 university undergraduates from an introductory marketing course participated in the study.
The students were grouped in random groups consisting of 5 members or less. A questionnaire
was distributed to each participant.

Biehal and Sheinin (1998) had proposed that managerial decision making framework and a
conceptual model would facilitate conceptually based research on the management of brands in a
corporate advertising environment. The framework had raised several questions that brand
managers had to address. One of the major challenges faced by the brand managers were to
enhance brand knowledge and maximize brand performance within a marketing environment
largely outside their control. They also claimed that the corporate ad knowledge could change
the brand knowledge. There were four questions which were raised in this study. To answer the
questions, the methodology was divided into three parts, namely, circumstances that may
encourage brand managers to seek corporate ad knowledge effects, tactics they can use to
achieve those effects, and risks the tactics engender.

Labrecque and Milne (2013) examined the color norms within product categories by examining
the relationship between color product category norms and brand equity. The study highlighted
the existence of visual product category norms, and emphasized both on the benefits and risks of
visual differentiation. The differentiation may be harmful for product categories containing a
dominant market leader versus those without. Color differentiation does not always help brands.
When brands follow similar color choices, the connection between color and category becomes
strongly linked within consumers' memory. The methodology used consisted of a study 281 top
brands. Adobe Photoshop software was also used to sample each logo color and examine the
level of saturation and value, which ranged from 0-100.

Madden, Hewett and Roth (2000) stated the implications for managing color to create and
sustain brand and corporate images across international markets. In many parts of the world,
consumers exhibit similarities in color liking and color meaning associations. Color influences
both human behavior and human physiology. Colors have specific meanings associated with
them and are also strongly associated with different brands. The sample size consisted of 253
undergraduate students from countries in East Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.
The countries studied and the sample size for each country was Austria (29), Brazil (26), Canada
(29), Colombia (48), Hong Kong (19), PRC (31), Taiwan (22), and the United States (49).
Respondents were given a questionnaire in which they had to rate 10 colors (black, blue, brown,
gold, green, orange, purple, red, white, and yellow) 20 items, using seven point semantic
differential scales. The questionnaires were created electronically with Lotus Amipro word
processing software, and standard color shading options were selected for the swatches.

Klink and Athaide (2012) examined how brand names could be formed to create brand
personality. There is a ruggedness brand personality formed by using back vowels, while brand
names with front vowels create a Sophistication and Sincerity personality. Brand names that
create a symbolic image may enhance future extension opportunities as opposed to functional
(Park et al. 1991). To study this, the authors used a Brand Personality Scale (BPS), consisting of
42 traits that captured 15 facets which constituted of 5 personality dimensions - i.e., Sincerity,
Excitement, Competence, Sophistication and Ruggedness. The sample size consisted of 154
undergraduate students from an Eastern university and each student was given a six page booklet
to fill. The procedure of the study took approximately 10 to 12 min and the students received US
$1 each as a token of appreciation for completing the survey.