Colour prints underestimated

Companies don’t make use of enough colour in prints and presentations

The importance of colour in the marketplace cannot be underestimated.

One only has to look back to the late ‘90s when Apple Computer brought colour into a market which had not seen it before. By introducing the colourful iMacs, Apple was the first company to say ‘it does not have to be beige’. The iMacs reinvigorated a brand that had suffered $1.8 billion of losses in two years. And now we have colour in just about every piece of technology.

However, colour is not only important when it comes to marketing or positioning one’s brand. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a picture with natural colours may be worth a million, memory-wise. Psychologists have documented that “living colour” does more than appeal to the senses. It also boosts memory for scenes in the natural world.

For us, vision is the primary source for all our experiences with current marketing research reporting that approximately 80 percent of what we assimilate through the senses is visual.

Our nervous system requires input and stimulation. Consider the effects of solitary confinement in prison. With respect to visual input, we become bored in the absence of a variety of colours and shapes. Consequently, colour addresses one of our basic neurological needs for stimulation.

A 1997 study on phone directory advertisements revealed that ads in colour are read up to 42 percent more often than the same advertisements in black and white.

So whether it comes down to using colour to influence people’s behaviour in their buying decisions or making things easier to read and understand, as the world’s largest supplier of printing and digital imaging equipment to businesses, HP is at the leading edge of colour and knows how it can assist business in today’s competitive world.