Step outside and take a deep breath. Then another. Then let your shoulders relax and just drink in the atmosphere. Do you feel that?
That atmosphere, that certain je ne sais quoi, that “feeling” in the air, can be your best friend or your worst enemy when you’re designing your marketing materials for printing.
Buying Decisions are Based on Feelings
How many times have you bought something because “it called to you”? Or, “it looked like something you just had to have”? How often do we pick something up just because it feels like a good fit, even if the logic behind it isn’t entirely logical?
Marketing 101: Customers don’t buy something because it’s logical. They buy it because they feel they have a need for it, and they have a feeling that particular product is going to fit that need. Simple. Easy.
Right?
Four Seasons of Feelings
So you have customers who buy products because they think those products will give them something they need. Sound about right?
That means that from a marketing standpoint, you have three jobs:
1) Showing your customers they have a need.
2) Convincing those customers your products or services are a best-fit for that need.
3) Driving the feeling that your products and services are the best choice for them.
So how do you do it?
Now we’re going to loop back to that certain je ne sais quoi we talked about earlier. When we’re babies we’re instinctually drawn to bright colors. Brightly colored toys, brightly colored mobiles, brightly colored blankets, brightly colored cartoon characters. We read books with brightly colored pictures, watch television shows with brightly colored animation and dive for the presents with brightly colored wrapping.
I think Mother Nature was trying to tell us something.
Humans are incredibly visual. Our emotions are heavily influenced by the colors surrounding us. It’s been speculated that the relationship between color and emotion is one of the reasons that seasonal depression is so common. When you spend month after month looking at shades of white, brown and black, minus the greens and blues and yellows and pinks and purples of summer, you lose some of the vitality that flowed so freely when the sun was shining, there were birds in the trees and you were able to kick back, relax and enjoy better weather.
A Color for Each Season
Different color schemes lend themselves to different marketing tactics in each season…and a different choice of colors to generate the enthusiasm and response you want from your customers. If you’re not using the right colors for each season, you’re going to be missing out!
For the next ten days we’re going to look at the colors of your marketing campaign and discuss how to use them, when to use them, when to mix them, what to mix them with, and which ones are the right choice to get the best response from your printed marketing materials during the cold snowy months.
So sit back. Relax. And stay tuned.