Color Association

A recent study called "Global Market Bias: Part 1 - Color" was conducted by Cheskin, MSI-ITM International, and CMCD/Visual Symbols Library. To keep the data manageable, the focus was limited to eight colors--red, blue, green, purple, orange, yellow, black and white--and respondents rated them in terms of association with attributes, countries, companies, and products. The charts shown here were pulled from that study.

It is possible to make some generalizations the world over, such as the color blue is Earth's favorite color. Not only will most individuals in every country tell you that, but blue is also the obvious choice for brands hoping for a global presence. Koreans associate blue strongly with technology, freshness, innovation, power--all possibly related to their favorite blue brand, Samsung.

Asia is a conundrum in many ways when it comes to color associations. It seems countries in Asia have widely different associations with primary brand colors. If your brand wants to express prestige, strength, and power in China, Japan, and Korea, one brand color will have great difficulty communicating in all three countries.

Purple may be the most "up-for-grabs" brand color on the globe. In English-speaking countries, purple is associated with royalty, but the only purple brand connection is with Cadbury. In Latin America and Europe, L'Oreal has a high association with purple, but Asia does not have strong associations with any purple brand.