Understanding Color, 5th Edition

11 THE BUSINESS OF COLOR The Color Industries / Colorants / Color Sampling / Color Forecasting / Color Consulting / Color and Product Identity / Palettes / Traditional Colors, Document Colors / Palettes and the Past / Color Becomes Fashion / Color Cycles: A Modern History / Today and Tomorrow

The chief business of the American people is business.

—Calvin Coolidge

Design has a single purpose for business and industry. Products are made to be sold, and a product sells well when its target audience see it as more appealing than its competitors. No matter how useful and functional a product may be, it must be both attractive and memorable to succeed in a consumer marketplace. A decision to buy often has as much to do with a buyer's perception of a product as it does with the product itself. Something may be purchased because it seems comfortingly familiar or for the completely opposite reason: because it makes a fresh and positive impression at the point of sale. A great part of success in consumer sales is a result of good looks.

Color is the largest single factor in a decision of whether or not to make a purchase. Market research indicates that 90 percent of consumer purchases are the result of a deliberate search, and that only 10 percent of purchases are made on impulse. And of planned purchases, 60 percent of the decision to buy involves color. Large-scale purchases like automobiles are generally given time and thought, but it has been estimated that in a supermarket aisle, ...