Color Psychology in Packaging Influencing Consumer Behavior
Admin 07 Jun 2025 | 04:16 AM
Your brand is expressed via color without requiring you to write or utter a single word. Recall your most recent experience browsing the aisles of a supermarket. It's likely that your initial impression of a brand is shaped by its packaging, particularly the color. It's often known that consumers make decisions 90 seconds after viewing your goods, and that between 62 and 90% of sales are based just on color. Not only can colorful packaging enhance the appearance of your product, but it may also significantly boost brand recognition and impact a wide range of consumer behaviors, such as taste perception and impulsive purchases.
Are you prepared to learn more? Continue reading to discover the science of color theory in packaging and how to maximize the potential of your product.
Why Is Color Such a Big Deal?
These days, packaging psychology is quite popular. The way the brain reacts to colors is preprogrammed. Brighter colors are seen as playful, black is elegant, and red captivates the eye. The audience you're targeting is subconsciously creating thoughts about your company based only on how your custom packaging looks.
Boosting Customer Purchase Intent
According to a 2013 research, packaging design can affect impulse purchases, even from those who aren't planning to buy anything. The impulsivity-related region of the brain was shown to be more active in response to attractive packaging, whereas areas linked to reflective thought exhibited less activity. It's interesting to note that while boring alternatives generated more negative emotions, attractive packaging also produced reward reactions.
Your consumer may be more inclined to act on impulse, forego careful consideration, and feel validated as a result of the purchase if they are drawn to the color and general design of your package. Strong, isn't that right?
Colors Tell Customers What to Expect
The psychology of packing should be taken into account as colors might inform consumers of what's inside before they ever interact with the product. Drinks and fruit-flavored treats are two excellent examples of this. The product's surface frequently mimics the color of the fruit. Assuming a red bottle, you'll anticipate a strawberry beverage. You'll be hoping to find lemon with yellow, and so on.
If you're wondering why this is important, research has shown that color may influence customers' expectations for a product's overall likeability and flavor. If you play on taste expectations, keep in mind that different cultures have different standards when it comes to what constitutes a good audience. For instance, Americans might anticipate sweeter flavors, whereas Malaysians view oranges as sour.
If you're marketing food with colorful packaging, do your homework. You'll be shocked at the impact it can have.
Read More: Types of Packaging Materials
The Packaging Color Wheel
Now that you understand the significance of colorful packaging, let's explore the emotions that colors elicit:
Blue:
Calmness, serenity, peace.
It's also associated with wisdom, creativity, and spirituality.
Red:
Passionate, energetic, lucky, strength, youthfulness.
Red makes you feel passionate and energized. It's often associated with passion and love.
Green:
Balance, serenity, joy
It encourages you to be independent and make changes, as well as enhances feelings of love, joy, and inner peace.
Yellow:
Yellow color is associated with sunshine, hope, laughter, warmth, happiness, and energy.
Orange:
The color psychology of orange is optimistic and uplifting, rejuvenating our spirit. Positive words associated with orange are: warmth, security, sensuality, passion, abundance, fun, social, welcoming, liveliness, active, happiness, joyfulness, cheerful, assertive, dynamic, extroverted, exuberance.
Purple:
Purple combines the calm stability of blue and the fierce energy of red. The color purple is often associated with royalty, nobility, luxury, power, and ambition.
Pink:
As the mix between red's passion and white's purity, pink symbolizes love, nurture and compassion. It evokes feelings of comfort, warmth, hope, femininity, beauty and youthfulness.
Brown:
Brown is often seen as solid, much like the earth, and it's a color often associated with resilience, dependability, security, and safety.
Black:
Black color has a special full-spectrum status when it comes to the feelings it reflects. Power, elegance, sophistication, formality, elegance, premium, authority.
White:
White color is associated with purity, innocence, goodness, humility, clean, premium.
Grey:
Grey color is associated with neutral, calm, balanced.
Choosing the Right Color for Your Company
It's crucial that you handle the packaging psychology for your business correctly since it bears a great deal of responsibility.
Think About the Image of Your Brand
Thinking on the image of your company and the kind of communication you want to have with your customers should be your first move. Do you wish to come across as reputable? If so, blue could be a wise option. Or perhaps you wish to express grace? Then the classy choice you're looking for can be black or white. Color should support the identity of your brand.
We demonstrate our dedication to sustainability and the environment via the usage of green branding. To convey freshness, you could wish to use lavender or light blue folding boxes if you're selling spa products. On the other hand, patterned bags with green and brown hues that encourage a connection to nature can be a suitable choice if you specialize in hiking apparel.
Consider Your Targeted Audience
Think about your target audience's preferences in addition to how you want your brand to be seen. Although people's favorite colors are subjective, a survey indicates that both men and women seem to prefer blue.
This was mostly because the color had pleasant connotations, like calm, bright sky, and pure water. Red and green were also discovered to be the most popular colors. But more males disliked purple than liked it; purple was solely a favorite color among women. If you're wondering where pink fits in, it's seen as a red variant, yet gender differences exist in which pink variety is chosen. It was discovered that men liked brighter red colors like ruby red, while women favored softer reds like pink. Surprisingly, the explanation behind this is far more scientific than you may think, and it might have to do with the fact that women see color differences more than males do.
Because of this, you could want to use softer, more subdued colors for your target audience of ladies and darker, punchier tones for your male audience.
Examine the Packaging of Your Competitor
Remember to have a peek at your rivals' packaging as well. It doesn't mean you have to go with the same color scheme they did. Alternatively, you might make the most of this aspect and select a different color. Some of the most striking colors include red, yellow, green, and pink, but if every company in your area employs the same hue, you'll need to attempt something unique to stand out.
Don't think you have to stick to one color. To highlight or draw attention to the main color, you can utilize another.
Personalized Colorful Packaging for Your Company
Ready to make sure your product is the center of attention? View our selection of bespoke packaging choices, which includes branded eCommerce packs, rigid boxes, and printed corrugated boxes. Everything is created using materials that are ethically sourced and non-toxic, vegetable or water-based inks that enhance the beauty of your goods without harming the environment.
Our Company is a reliable partner to work with since we not only offer our exceptional package design knowledge, but we also provide excellent printing services to guarantee the best possible quality.
