Latest features Supermarket psychology

Date Published:

27/05/2009

Food brands spend tens of millions of pounds each year telling you who they are and what they stand for. What they don’t tell you is why discounts are always written in red, why Cadbury's is purple and why Sainsbury's branding is orange

Craig Butcher met Angela Wright, the UK's foremost colour psychologist, to learn how supermarkets use colour to influence our purchasing decisions.

Colour psychology was pioneered in this country by Angela Wright, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and founder of colour consultancy Colour Affects. She identified links between patterns of colour and patterns of human behaviour. In a food branding context, she says: "The best colour to use is orange, closely followed by green. Those colours are built around the natural palette – those warm, rich colours work very well. Sainsbury’s in particular has adopted them. Their orange exactly captures that reminder that you might be hungry. If you see Sainsbury’s branding and are slightly hungry but hadn’t realised it, it’s going to activate that instinct."

A clockwork orange

Wright argues that our association of orange with abundance comes from hundreds of years of evolution. "If you imagine prehistoric humanity, the colour red is about absolute fundamental survival - the fight or flight instinct. Pink is about survival of the species. Once those are squared away, humanity could think of less vital survival instincts. That’s where the orange comes in - it is the sensual colour. The human reaction to orange is to focus on secondary survival - food, warmth, shelter and physical comfort."

How do the other supermarkets fare? "Potentially Sainsbury’s have got it the best of all the major supermarkets. Asda’s green has always been very good in relation to food, theirs particularly suggests affordability."

Tesco’s palette appears equally strategic, though different in approach. "Blue in a food context doesn’t encourage you to eat particularly; it’s an intellectual colour, so it’s a good colour to use if you’re on a diet, to make you think about what you’re purchasing. But the value blue has in marketing food is that it suggests clear communication and reliability. It’s a very popular colour in branding because it evokes trust and reliability."

Price cuts

Ever noticed how Tesco's 'price cuts' are lettered yellow on a red background? "Red is the perfect colour for discounting," say Angela. "Red has the bizarre property in that red objects appear closer than they really are, which is why they are used in traffic lights the world over. It raises your pulse rate and gets you going. It's also the most basic colour – it's right in your face. Therefore most reds have an element of cheap and cheerful about them. Bright yellow is the most visible colour and is the colour of the emotions - it lifts your spirits, your ego and self-confidence. Tesco’s use it in lettering to grab your attention but then it may also make you feel optimistic."

The royal connection

Still wondering about Cadbury’s purple? "Until about 150 years ago purple was prohibitively expensive to produce as a dye," says Angela. "So it was the colour of the churches and associated with royalty. In a food context, it still has this historical association and communicates luxury and premium. Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference range is branded purple for precisely the same reason."

How supermarkets are designed to ensure better sales

Catch up on I’m Running Sainsbury’s on 4Food

Back to top