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THE PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND C By Eden Hirschfield
TWO SECONDS. That’s how long a grocery item has to grab your attention. When it comes to marketing food, researchers have found colors can make a big difference in consumer attraction. It’s no mistake that big chains like McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, In-N-Out and Wendy’s picked yellow, orange and red to fill their logos; these colors are shown to increase appetite. Warm colors are also said to raise heart rate and blood pressure, giving you the energy you need to walk yourself right up to those Golden Arches to get nuggets. Oh yeah, they’re onto you.
It’s no secret COVID-19 is impacting just about every aspect of the world. In light of the impact, consumer food and foodservice companies are working overtime to differentiate their products and grab a precious share of our tightened wallets. One method is the important (and not so widely understood) use of color. In the grey days of “shelter in place” across America, the right hue can sell you.
One color you won’t see used much in food marketing is blue. Cool colors exude feelings of calmness and are actually said to work as appetite suppressants. (So...Oreos….uh...you good?) Some weightloss coaches even recommend installing blue lights in your refrigerator to help control overeating. Is anyone reading this actually going to do that? Nope. But it’s nice to know the color blue has some relaxing effects. Underneath the packaging, you might not realize that there aren’t really any blue foods in existence. I know your mind just went straight to blueberries, but a study done by Food Network in 2013 revealed that the shade we see in this fruit is technically purple. (Purpleberries though… just doesn’t hit the same). Away from food, however, blue is associated with trust, security, honesty and reliability. For this reason, the logos of companies such as Facebook, Visa, Goldman Sachs, PayPal, Skype, Twitter, American Express, Venmo, Walmart and LinkedIn are all very blue.
2020
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