Let’s say you’re trying to get someone to buy your product and you want to purchase an ad. Do you go with a black-and-white or color ad? Well, that depends on where you want to draw attention.
“Black-and-white images can lead consumers to focus on the abstract, essential, and defining components of a product,” wrote authors Hyojin Lee, Xiaoyan Deng, H. Rao Unnava, and Kentaro Fujita (all The Ohio State University), in a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. “In contrast, color images can draw attention to the concrete, sometimes unimportant and idiosyncratic features of the product.”
The researchers had consumers in one study look at either black-and-white or color pictures of four shoes (plain sneakers, leopard print sneakers, plain heels, and leopard print heels) and asked them to categorize the shoes into two groups. Those who saw the black-and-white images most likely categorized the shoes based on function (high heels vs. sneakers) instead of differences in aesthetic design.
“Color has become dominant in marketing because it attracts attention and promotes favorable attitudes,” the authors wrote. “However, there may be times when companies might prefer to use black-and-white advertising. If a product’s primary features are superior, companies can successfully promote the product by using black-and-white images. On the other hand, if a product’s secondary features are superior, companies should consider using color images to draw attention to these otherwise easily overlooked features.”
(photo credit: Thomas Hawk via photopin cc)
