IMPACT OF COLOUR REPRESENTATION IN NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING

IMPACT OF COLOUR REPRESENTATION IN NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING (A CASE STUDY OF VANGUARD ADVERTISEMENT)

CHAPTER ONE

 1.0    INTRODUCTION

1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Of the five human senses, sight undoubtedly has the most powerful effect on consumer perceptions. The famous Greek philosopher Aristotle indicated that all perceptions are triggered by witness.

The research of Linstorm (2005) also revealed that 83% of human beings use sight as the receiver to obtain messages among the five senses.

Gob’e (2001) considered sight the most noticeable sensing tool in humans. Human beings have a direct reaction to color and shape; hence, designers utilize color traits to enhance the sight memory of brands and improve the ability to identify brands.

(Perry and Wisonm, 2003). Colors are embedded with messages and can trigger special reactions between the central nervous system and the cerebral cortex. The seven second color theory in marketing, proposed in the 1980s in Europe, indicates that consumers experience their first impression of sight memory for products within 0.67 seconds.   The first impression dominates 67% of the purchasing process which comes from colors. That is, humans memorize and recognize the color and shape of a product within seven seconds. 62% of people associate product brands via colors after watching a three-second.

According to Thomson Dawson (2013). Color is the predominate element of identification and association with a brand. Color enables us to instantly recognize and draw emotional associations to a brand. Effective and comprehensive brand strategy must consider the critical importance of color. Color is far more than a simple aesthetic consideration in the tool kit of components that make up brand identity and experience.

 Thomson Dawson (2013). Color is the very first perception customers will have with your brand, and along with perception comes a whole host of emotional associations.

The color of your brand is an essential character in your brand’s story. When choosing a color to represent your brand, you must think far beyond your personal, subjective preferences.

However, visual perception is the primary sense humans have for exploring and making sense of their environment. Colors trigger a diverse set of responses within the cerebral cortex of the brain and throughout the central nervous system.

The proper perception of color has been one of the key drivers of human evolution. If color is that important to human evolution, just think how important it is to building the value of your brand.

Once we humans identify a color, we instantly have a chemical reaction in our brain that produces an emotional response. This response triggers a multitude of thoughts, memories and associations to people, places and events. Color affects us in profound ways. Our brains are designed to respond to color. This all happens instantly under our conscious awareness.

Olayinka S. O. (2010). Observes that color is nothing more than the reflection of certain light waves picked up by your optic nerve, transmitted through nerves to your brain. Color doesn’t really exist; it’s only its reflection. Within our conscious minds, we have all been predisposed and indoctrinated to give meanings and feelings to particular colors within the context of what the culture at large values.

These cultural associations to specific colors need to be a big driver of your strategic and creative decisions when forming the foundation of your brand’s identity in the marketplace. For the purpose of this study we shall use the vanguard news paper as a case study.

1.2    STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

         Most news paper companies have a very poor colour presention;  Colour representation through the multiple use of colours intensifies the attention catching of the readers in advertisements. However it is associated with certain problems.

The use of colours work as a trick in advertisement. In essence, the product seen, colourful and attractive may not have good quality. Despite the fact that full colours of a product in advertisement is attractive, it might be as well deceitful in the sense that the product actually does not reach expectation. (quality).

Stressing further, because of the huge amount involved in colour representation, advertisers want to find out if the outcome justifies the efforts. In other words, it affects the buyers due to the high price of the product.

By and large, colour representation of a product is a distraction to attention, being that readers are influenced over a product which ordinarily they would not like to buy.

Moreso, some readers are increasingly conscious of their taste, and in order to have better value for their money, tend to choose the right product that will satisfy their unique, not withstanding the colourful advert of the product.