Colors, Lights, Appeal!

For background colors the most appealing colors were white and yellow which were ranked number 1, 7 and 6 times respectfully. With black being the least appealing as it was ranked 8th 11 times. These results can be attributed to visual clarity which comes from visual merchandising. The yellow and white contrasted nicely with the black earbuds, yellow and white being the brightest colors in the colors that were tested. So bright colors are best for appeal when used against a product that is of a dark color.

On the other hand a black background made the product blend in with the background and greatly reduced clarity, so it received a poor ranking in appeal. Although blue ranked second least appealing, it only had 3 people ranking it at least appealing which pales in comparison to the amount of people who ranked black as least appealing.

For lighting it can be inferred that brighter lights were more appealing than darker lights as they generally ranked higher, but the brightest light (+150) was ranked as least appealing. Thus we can say that for appeal people like to have a brighter picture but don’t want it to be so bright that it subtracts from the clarity of the picture. This form of clarity is one of the pillars of visual merchandising and so if anything obstructs and subtracts from clarity then it would have lower appeal.

As both the results of the background color and lighting has shown, a good combination of them would be a white or yellow background with lighting values between 0 and +150. Although a test would have to be used in order to find if the combination actually works because these two variables may work by themselves, but without further testing into their combination a direct conclusion may not be met. Although a conclusion may be inferred, but other factors such as the color made from lighter shades, any clarity that may be lost, and any influence the product may have to be taken into consideration.

This research illustrated the effects of different background colors and lighting on appeal in the online world. It underlines that importance of colors and lighting in visual design as the results shown what background colors and lighting worked best with the product used. The research found in this paper filled in the gap of knowledge in what background colors and lighting would be most appealing to online consumers as the current knowledge is either filled with lighting tied to another variable such as store mood or colors, or that colors is tied to another variable like shape. With this research a more defined and scientific approach was done in where the variables of lighting and background color were separated. In the end it was found that bright colors that contrasted with the black earbuds appeal best, while brighter lighting was more appeal than darker lighting, but the brightest lighting had the worst appeal. Although the results may be unrepresentative due to the low amount of participants, the method used may be used by future researchers.

In conclusion I have changed my initial assumption about why there E-commerce websites would use a blank background, it was not just an industry standard but also for its clarity and contrast to the item being displayed. I now understand this because of my research into visual merchandising and its effect in marketing as a whole.

The field of appeal in marketing is broad and there are many improvements that can be made. While the research I have done may be insignificant in the long run, it is a stepping stone to greater research that will improve the field of marketing.

Thus future research could go into more scientifically designed experiments in where the experiment is in a contained room so that no distractions may hinder the thought process of the participant. As well as custom made surveys and websites that are neutral colored in order to cull unseen variables. Also future research related to background color and lighting should take into consideration other saturation of colors, tertiary colors, and combination of colors, as explained earlier different colors can produce different feelings. With more colors a wider arrange of emotions could be shown and thus produce different results and appeals from participants

Future research could go either more into the light side of the experiment or the background color side of the experiment, both of these can be researched more heavily. Where background color can be researched in depth by using tertiary colors, or combinations of colors (mixed or layered) these could produce different results as different colors and different combinations of color all produce different emotions and thoughts. More research into light could use smaller increments of lights, like using 25 intervals or 10 intervals instead of the 50 intervals that was used in the methods section. This could prove a more specific look into what degree of light is best, whether brighter lights on the low end or the high end is better. Another look into this is the use of colored lights whether or not this makes a large difference is undetermined, but it could use a look into, to see any potential benefits.

• • • Mofarah, M. Y., Tahmtan, Z. S., Dadashi, M. T., & Banihashemian, S. H. (2013). HOW COLOR AFFECTS MARKETING. Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review (Oman Chapter), 2(6), 163-171. 

    • Pelet, J., & Papadopoulou, P. (2012). The effect of colors of e-commerce websites on consumer mood, memorization and buying intention. European Journal of Information Systems, 21(4), 438-467.