How Color Sells: Orange Will Make You Laugh on the Cheap!

Color is about more than interior design and fashion; it is used for marketing products from diapers to diet soda, from office supplies to electronics, from bargain buys to luxury investments, color sells. The key is to learn how to use color to your advantage as it is often a subliminal influence. Once you know the psychology and the cultural differences you can layer hues from light to dark, subtle to bold, to achieve the desired response.

It’s true people are said to laugh more in the presence of orange than any other color. I’m not sure why we aren’t all howling in Home Depot but then guessing they are using it as it represents affordability and they are the KING of affordable home improvement! (At least that’s what they want to be.) Often generic packaging will use orange as a low price indicator.

Used in marketing, orange is considered the great social equalizer. Orange and its cousin peach promote learning and are good colors for educational spaces. Like any color, the appeal is largely in the name and while it is darned near impossible to sell an orange room, going pumpkin, terracotta, coral, or Sunkist is much more delicious.

Orange is also the favorite color of blue collar workers because it represents safety. Think of all the orange cones on the highways and byways, the orange safety vests, life jackets, and, of course, the orange barrels that dot the countries roadway construction zones. Orange saves lives.

So whether you want to garner a smile, promote learning, be affordable, or play it safe, orange and it’s family of hues is a good bet for you. Once you have mastered the mystery of color, you can put the psychology to work for your success and even your profit!