How Color Sells: Are You True Blue?

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.

Blue means loyalty and trust, and it’s what you want your friends to be! Blue is the most popular of all colors universally, largely because it is the sky above and sea beyond. It truly does promote trust, and some of us can recall when police wore blue and not black and we knew them as the men in blue. It is also considered a power color among men.

I’ve often considered that it was blue that always got me the job and I frequently wear it on new client interviews. The effect is subliminal but nonetheless successful! Give it a try on your next or current job search. While it might be your great resume, the right blue suit could be your tipping point.

On the flip side, blue lowers one’s blood pressure and is often used to connote “feeling blue,” “in a blue funk” and emotions of a depressive or sad nature. At the same time it is a great appetite suppressant, after all usually if it is blue it is time to toss it! (My Mother always just scraped it off, and said it was a little extra penicillin.)

Blue is also about longevity as in “once in a blue moon.” And it is frequently associated with celestial elements, the heavens, and of course religion and the Virgin Mary. Once you have mastered the mystery of color, you can put the psychology to work for your success and even your profit.