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ОглавлениеMeasuring Color and Design Effectiveness
Scientific Approach to Color and Design
This book was prepared specially for those business executives, market researchers, advertising people, commercial artists, display men and creative salesmen who seek knowledge about using color and design as marketing tools. The material in this book does not deal with personal or subjective opinions but with the scientific application of color and design.
Using color and design scientifically means determining, by testing under controlled conditions, the optical and psychological effect of specific colors and images. It means eliminating personal taste and subjective judgment in choosing designs and colors for store and window displays, for packages, direct mail pieces and all advertising matter.
After reading this book it will become apparent that you cannot depend on personal judgment in using color and design as tools in marketing. You will learn why other people’s opinions regarding a piece of art or a color are not reliable guides. You will also become aware that polling gives no more accurate information about markets than about national elections.
The scientific procedures of testing color and design effectiveness and the psychological aspects of home furnishings, wearing apparel and store interiors are discussed in the first part of the book. The second part covers the application of color and design in the fields of package design, window displays, counter and floor displays, display posters, publications advertising and direct mail advertising as well as in all types of printed literature.
The optical and psychological aspects of color are presented concisely and briefly and actual case histories, mostly from the files of the Color Research Institute of America, are incorporated.
The appendix will be of interest to those who desire to become familiar with the basic physical, chemical and physiological aspects of color. Those who want to go still further into the psychological aspects of color and their application to home interiors and industrial interiors should read “Colors: What They Can Do For You.”
We have much evidence to show that people remember little of what they see and generally are not aware whether they have or have not seen an ad. For example, a proof of an unpublished advertisement was shown to a group that is normally exposed to that type of ad and they were asked, “Have you seen this ad before?” Twelve to fourteen per cent said they had. Yet they could not have seen it since it had never appeared in public print.
A few weeks later the same persons were shown the same ad proof sheet and were asked the same question. Only twelve to fourteen per cent of those who had seen the ad before could say they remembered it.
The proof sheet dealt with a pharmaceutical product and those interviewed were doctors. Obviously the doctors were not trying to be misleading. They no doubt answered the question honestly, but their answers showed that most of them could not recall the ad. If doctors cannot recollect something they have seen, the same certainly must be true of other groups of men and women.
We have just as much evidence to show that people cannot predict what they will do in the future. It was reported that Elmo Roper, for example, conducted a survey to forecast public response to Life Magazine. The study showed that Life Magazine would not be a success. I think we all know that there was something wrong with that study.
The national elections of 1948 were an outstanding example of the unreliability of polling methods. Dr. Gallup, Mr. Roper and other pollsters failed to predict the election results because people just didn’t know how they would vote. People could tell the pollster only what they thought they would do when they walked into the voting booth. And what people think they will do and what they will actually do when they have to act are often entirely different.
The following excerpt from Tide which also appeared in Reader’s Digest, January 1950, is as good an example as any illustrating the unreliability or meaninglessness of polling.
Sam Gill, research director of a New York advertising agency, reported the following results of a public-opinion survey:
| Question: | “Which of the following statements most closely coincides with your opinion of the Metallic Metals Act?” |
| Answers: | It would be a good move on the part of the U.S. (21.4 per cent).It would be a good thing but should be left to individual states (58.6 per cent). It is all right for foreign countries but should not be required here (15.7 per cent). |
| It is of no value at all (4.3 per cent). |
The percentages represent the answers of 70 per cent of the total; 30 per cent had no opinion. The National Metallic Metals Act existed only in the mind of the individual who planned the poll.
Still another factor that weakens the structure of marketing research based on polling methods is an unwillingness to give the true information. To a pollster’s question, “Have you borrowed money from a personal loan company?” a poll showed that no one had. But the loan company’s records revealed that all those interviewed had borrowed money.
Another example is a survey on what magazines people read. To the question, “What magazines do you read?” a poll indicated that the Atlantic Monthly had six times its actual circulation and that the pulp magazines, printed in the millions, had a negligible circulation. Obviously many of those questioned were unwilling to go on record as lowbrow even though they enjoyed reading “lowbrow” publications.
Even when the questions are accurately answered, we still cannot determine what kind of ad is the best. We can determine only which is the best of the ads being tested. In other words: If you do research to find out which of six ads is best, you may learn which is the best of the six, but not that the best of the six is the best that can be created.
We have conclusive evidence that marketing research of the polling type, based on conscious reactions, is not a reliable tool because: 1) people do not have the ability to give the right information, 2) people are not willing to give the right information, 3) only a predetermined number of units can be tested.
Psychoanalytical findings concerning the nature of the unconscious show how naive we have been in basing marketing research on the assumption that human beings always are able and willing to reveal their true feelings, or to predict their own behavior.
From psychoanalysis we learn that only a small proportion of the individual’s total experiences (or emotional life) is within his conscious grasp. Some of an individual’s experiences can be recalled by a casual association and some by special techniques, but a good part remains forever beyond the reach of the conscious mind.
We generally recognize that we forget much of our past. But difficult to accept is the knowledge that these presumably “forgotten” experiences are really not forgotten but remain in the unconscious where they continue to exert tremendous power over our behavior.
Conscious feelings and intentions, therefore, are often overwhelmed by forces hidden deep in the unconscious. It is the unconscious purpose rather than the intellectual reasoning processes that generally determines how an individual will behave. If marketing research, then, is to predict reliably what people will do, it must have procedures and techniques for discovering unconscious motives, purposes and needs.
Conscious and Unconscious Reactions
Because a person is not conscious of having seen an advertisement, it does not mean that the image of the advertisement is not impressed on the unconscious mind. Since the unconscious contains “images” from infancy, it certainly has no difficulty in housing an image that is a month or two old. We have no doubt that it is much easier to recall a recent experience than it is a childhood experience. Often the skill of a trained psychoanalyst is needed to bring forth into consciousness an individual’s early childhood experiences that lie hidden deep in the unconscious. But people normally recall recent experiences that have meaning to them.
When a person is asked to recall an ad he is asked to be conscious of it. But because he is not conscious of it does not mean that the ad did not have its effect on him. He may have been strongly and powerfully affected by the ad, yet completely unaware of it.
Also, a person may not see any reason, or he may have no incentive for making a special effort to answer the question factually. An individual may want to be polite to the extent of saying yes or no, but he may not have the necessary incentive to call forth conscious images through a process of association.
We need no research in order to learn that the average housewife does not go to the store to buy package designs. Consciously she buys meat, cheese, fish or fruit; only unconsciously does she buy the container. The average housewife will not agree with you if you tell her that she bought a product because of the colors on the package.
However, when the same bar of soap was placed in a store on the same shelf but in two different wrappers, one wrapper outsold the other by 160 per cent. I told thirty-two women that they bought the soap because of the wrapper. Some of them responded with unfriendly looks and others denied it. Some even disdained to answer the accusation.
When two hundred and ten persons were asked whether they bought magazines for the articles, the fiction or the ads, one hundred and twelve said articles; ninety-four said fiction; and four said ads. However, in spite of the common opinion that people are not interested in ads*, facts proved otherwise. During the war a magazine was offered a group of soldiers in two types of editions, the regular issue and a special overseas edition from which the ads were eliminated. Out of three hundred men only two wanted the overseas edition without the ads.
In other words, people are not aware that ads have much psychological and social significance to them. Consciously many people buy magazines for the fiction and nonfiction, unconsciously they buy certain magazines because of the ads. It is evident that to ask people whether they value the ads is meaningless and wasteful effort.
Another study showed that individuals who claimed that they were not influenced by advertising, unconsciously bought only widely advertised products. Their conscious minds rejected advertising but their unconscious behavior was influenced by it.
A number of experiments demonstrated how images emerged from the unconscious through an associative process, but that a mere question did not provide the appropriate association factor or incentive.
The following is one such experiment that was made with forty club women of a middle class economic group. They were asked to walk through a room and then to write down what they had seen. After they had done so they were conducted back to the room where everything remained exactly as before except that a pair of scissors had been removed from the table.
They were asked to cut out images from colored sheets of paper. Scissors were needed to do the job. Twenty-four of them now said that they were sure they had seen scissors the first time they were in the room. Yet only three originally listed scissors as one of the items they had seen.
This meant that twenty-one out of twenty-four persons could bring forth the image of scissors when they actually needed the scissors for performing a task, whereas, in reply to the question, “What did you see in the room?” they did not list the scissors.
Normal and Abnormal Color Reactions
Colors have deep symbolic meanings. For example, we associate red with festivity, blue with distinction, purple with dignity, green with nature, yellow with sunshine. Pink is generally associated with health. People often say, “He is in the pink,” meaning that he is in very good health. White is a symbol of purity. Black expresses evil.
Colors are used as designations of special merit in awarding honors and prizes. Flags are the symbols of countries. We all know what red, white and blue mean to us. These and many other color associations are normal, traditional and social.
Normally, people speak of gay colors and somber colors, of colors that give pleasure and colors that depress. However, there are individuals whose reactions to colors are neither normal, nor traditional, nor social.
Tests on an unconscious level have shown that a specific magenta red has a preference rating of 94. This means that while 94 out of a hundred persons react to the color in a normal pleasurable way, six react unfavorably to this color. The reasons for the six individuals reacting negatively to an inherently beautiful color go back to an early childhood traumatic experience associated with the color.
A young Army officer and his wife and child lived in a one room apartment with camp-made furniture. One day when the baby was put into the high chair, she began to scream loudly.
When the chair was examined it was found that a nail had become exposed and had pricked the baby deeply into the flesh. The nail was immediately removed but the child refused to sit in the high chair even weeks after this experience. The parents were frantic but did not know what to do.
When this was explained to a friend who was a color specialist, he suggested that they paint the red high chair green. After this was done, the baby was perfectly content to sit in it. It is highly probable that this baby girl will grow up with a strong dislike for red.
A mother foolishly pointed out a policeman to her boy, telling him that if he did not behave this man would take him away and lock him up in a jail all by himself.
One day the boy’s father bought a new blue worsted suit for himself of which he was very proud. When he entered the room in his new suit the little boy became hysterical.
However, the relationship between the father’s blue suit and the child’s abnormal behavior was not discovered by the parents. Only much professional psychoanalytical probing revealed that the little boy associated the blue suit with the man who was going to take him to jail. The color, in this case, was a stronger emotional factor than the father-son relationship. (It is, of course, evident here that the father-son relationship was not very close.) The impression from such an experience, if it is not detected and corrected, can result in a lifelong, strong dislike for blue.
Jerry was six years old when his mother brought him to a children’s psychiatric clinic. The mother reported that Jerry not only refused to go to school but would get sudden fits whenever school was mentioned and that even on some occasions when the subject was not mentioned he became hysterical.
The mother was advised by the interviewer to matriculate the boy in the special classes for problem children conducted by the clinic. In these classes the children are observed by trained psychiatric social workers and a daily record is kept of each child’s behavior.
For the first two days Jerry was inhibited, fearful, unexpressive but otherwise normal. On the third day he became hysterical and again on the fourth day.
An analysis of the daily record showed that the hysteria took place each time during an art session. The connection between the hysterical behavior and the art class appeared to be coincidental until all the minute elements of the art class were classified and analyzed.
The highly trained psychiatric social worker found something that would have been meaningless to the average teacher. She observed that the hysteria took place only when the children were painting with orange paint. They painted with red tempera on Monday, with blue on Tuesday, and on Wednesday with orange. For some reason, either planned or coincidental, the same orange paint was used again on Thursday and also, on Thursday, Jerry was hysterical. On Friday they painted with yellow and, although the boy was highly nervous, he carried through his art activity without incident. The following week and the third week there was the same correlation between the orange color and hysterical behavior of the six year old.
The boy was put with a group of children who worked with all colors except orange or colors closely related to orange. No hysteria showed up.
During the time the boy was attending the classes, another psychiatric social worker was meeting with the boy’s mother twice a week. When the correlation of the orange color and the boy’s hysteria was presented to the mother’s social worker, she began to ask the mother leading questions. Previously the mother had described her child’s hysterical behavior as coming on suddenly with no cause whatever. Now the following story came out.
The mother and her son were visiting relatives in another state when school began. Jerry therefore did not start school at the same time with the other boys and girls. When Jerry was brought to school by his mother for the first time it was just before Halloween. The class was given the project of drawing a pumpkin.
Because it was Jerry’s first experience with tempera he was timid about handling it and when the class session was over his pumpkin drawing was not finished.
The teacher was one of those who believe in enforcing discipline from the very beginning. She announced that all those who had not finished the drawing lesson must remain after class to finish it. Jerry watched the boys and girls rush out of the room to meet their mothers in the foyer. He alone had to remain to finish drawing the pumpkin.
The large class room suddenly became unnaturally quiet. He saw that he was alone with only the austere teacher sitting at her desk on a platform very high and very distant from him. He became terrified and began to cry out loud. The teacher rushed up to him and reprimanded him in a harsh voice that echoed in the large empty room. The boy became hysterical and the teacher dragged him out to his mother with the exclamation that he was a very bad boy, lazy and troublesome. This traumatic experience became associated in the boy’s unconscious with the color of pumpkin—orange.
Had this association of the sensation of an orange color with a traumatic experience not been discovered in the child, the boy could have grown up with a color complex that might have been a strong handicap in his adult life. There are many adults who have strong color phobias due to similar childhood traumatic experiences associated with colors.
Strong visibility, great retention power, high color preference, excellent image and color representation, plus easy eye-movement combine in making this point-of-sale poster a potent selling tool.
Human behavior is conditioned by habit and habit is as regular in its pattern as a set of gears and wheels driven by a motor. Evidence that behavior patterns are formed through habit and association has been most effectively brought out by J. P. Pavlov, the Russian scientist, author of the theory of “conditioned reflex.” The theory is based on very extensive experiments with dogs.
Pavlov regularly gave a dog a piece of meat immediately after the ringing of a bell. The association of the bell ringing and the meat eating was repeated until after a certain period of time the ringing of the bell without the meat produced a flow of saliva in the dog. The bell and the meat became synonymous. This is a “conditioned reflex.”
However, “conditioned reflexes” can be inhibited or changed. If, after a dog has been conditioned to associate the ringing of a bell with eating meat, the bell continues to be rung but is followed either by no meat or by some painful treatment for a continued length of time, the saliva soon ceases to flow. This is an “inhibitory reflex,” which if repeated too often can lead to neurosis.
Human beings are conditioned from infancy by their environment. The conditioning is neither voluntary nor conscious. A new-born child acts freely and instinctively. If we do not interfere with the infant’s spontaneous behavior and gratify his natural needs for food and fondling (love), the infant may grow up to be a very self-indulgent, selfish, and antisocial individual but he would not be in danger of becoming an inhibited individual. However, in order to make the child conform to family or group behavior patterns, the parents begin to inhibit the infant by restricting his spontaneous behavior and therein lies the danger of the child withdrawing from his environment into himself.
Excessive inhibition is the road to neurosis. Normally, there is a near balance between self-expression and inhibition. The less inhibited individual is called an extrovert; the overly inhibited person we describe as an introvert. Completely or nearly completely introverted or extroverted people are abnormal and since such individuals do not often go to stores to make purchases we will not discuss them here.
Normally, people are at the height of happiness when they express themselves freely. Actually it means that we are happiest when we do not have to think or exert any kind of effort or control over our emotional expression. However, your freedom of expression may inhibit your neighbor’s freedom of expression. And your neighbor’s or your brother’s freedom of expression may inhibit your freedom of expression. Therefore, we are all inhibited to some degree first by the family and then by society. In other words, normal people have dual behavior patterns, instinctive, original, libidinous and conditioned reflexes.
The love for red is normally instinctive. A negative reaction to black is normally instinctive. However, a person can be conditioned to react against red or, on the other hand, to react pleasurably to black.
Red expresses light and warmth; it stimulates. But suppose each time red was put before a new-born child (or any creature that has color sight, a bird for example, dogs do not see color) it was accompanied or followed by a pin prick or other type of painful experience, the child would grow up with a strong dislike for red.
Black by itself produces few pleasurable sensations. It is not only non-stimulating but inhibiting. However, suppose a newborn infant were given food in the dark, never had his hunger satisfied when there was light and suppose the infant were continuously fondled or given attention by the mother in the dark but never when there was light. Black or dark would then become a pleasurable sensation. This person would, in other words, have a “conditioned reflex” to associate black with pleasure.
Mothers don’t make a practice of wearing red robes while pricking their infants with pins and they generally prefer to sleep at night and feed and fondle their babies in the day time. Therefore, people normally enjoy looking at red and react unfavorably to black.
For physical as well as psychological reasons, any color (or object) looks better when placed next to or framed with black. Black plays an important role by negation; it makes adjacent colors more vibrant and more beautiful. A black gown is, therefore, flattering to a woman particularly if she has a clear complexion or applies cosmetics appropriately.
There are, however, great numbers of people who have been conditioned to dislike red. They are greatly inhibited and do not have normal emotional reactions to the color. Preference tests conducted on an unconscious level show that those who were brought up in a puritanical tradition dislike red; they associate the vibrant red with immorality or lack of good taste.
Originally, when Puritanism was a social movement, the association of red with moral looseness was on a conscious level. That is, it was a deliberate association made to discourage emotional sensation and expression.
Generally, the association is no longer conscious. It merely shows up in the dislike for red or in a negative reaction to red. In other words, persons who have been brought up in a puritanical environment have an “inhibitory reflex” in relation to red.
The attraction to “period furniture” and ornate design is a good example of a “conditioned reflex.” In other words, if you were brought up in a happy home with Baroque interior decoration you are likely to continue to have a preference for Baroque or other type ornate interiors because deep in the unconscious the pleasant experiences of your childhood are associated with this type of decoration.
The conditioning you received during the years from the day of your birth is called by some researchers the unconscious mind, by others the subconscious and by still others “conditioned reflex.” Whatever they are called, they are basic behavior patterns. These behavior patterns determine the individual’s choice of colors, of objects and ideas.
Pavlov changed the conditioned reflexes of dogs and there are several ways for accomplishing this with humans. Psychoanalysis is one method for bringing the unconscious “conditioned reflex” into a conscious state, thus helping to change or eliminate it. The psychoanalytical approach is generally reserved for highly neurotic individuals or for persons abnormally inhibited or frustrated.
The most effective way for changing the conditioned reflexes of the great masses of “normal” people is by advertising—continuous and constant repetition of psychologically potent words, images, and colors. (Propaganda has also accomplished “miracles” in converting conditioned reflexes into new behavior patterns.)
We are generally not conscious of the images and colors around us. Most aspects of our environment remain in a state of mere sensation. We experience the sensations on an unconscious level; that is, we are usually completely unaware of them.
You may not even be aware of a billboard advertisement that meets your eyes every morning on the way to work. Nevertheless, this billboard is being impressed on your unconscious mind. If the colors and images are in themselves pleasing and satisfying, this pleasurable sensation becomes associated with the advertised product. You are thus developing a favorable conditioned reflex toward the product because it is associated with pleasing colors and images. You are forming a new phase or reforming an old phase of your behavior pattern. The first thing you know you will try a new brand of cigarettes. You have no reason; that is, no conscious reason for this change. The billboard on the way to your office did its job.
The housewife has been buying a certain brand of Brown ’n Serve packaged in an ordinary carton since it first came on the market. Another bakery has recently put Brown ’n Serve in an attractive container. For some time she may continue to ignore the attraction of this new container. She continues to buy her old brand, the first love. She acts according to the initial “conditioned reflex.” But after a number of times in the store, the pleasing colors and images on the new package have impressed themselves. Unconsciously, she picks up the new brand in the attractive container. The repetitious effect of the attractive colors and images has produced a new “conditioned reflex.”
When a number of new package designs for soap were put before a group of women and they were asked, “Which package do you like best?” many opinions were given. Unfortunately, these opinions were taken to mean that they were indicative of what the women would do when they went to the grocery store. Actually, what the researcher had succeeded in getting was an attitude to an artistic creation, not to a soap wrapper.
When buying soap the women’s standards and concepts of good design or art will play no part. In the store the woman is confronted with a multitude of color and image sensations, none of which is consciously appraised on the basis of aesthetic standards.
The following two tests demonstrate the difference between what people say they like and what they actually want.
The tests were to determine which of two package designs for face powder was the more effective. One design was ornate and in five colors (a deep and a light blue, a deep red, pink and black); the other was simple and in two colors (pink and blue-green).
In the first test we asked, “Which of the two designs do you like better for this product?” In the second test we asked a group of women, of the same social and economic status, to choose one of six proposed names for the product and offered the winners boxes of face powder as prizes. Then we asked in which package they wanted to receive their prizes. (The women in this group were made to believe that we were testing the product name; they had no idea that the package design was actually being tested. This kept the focus of the conscious mind on the product name and not on the design.)
The ornate design won out in the “Which do you like?” test. In the “Which package should we send you” test, the simple design pulled far ahead of the ornate one, more than three to one. No information is more important to market researchers than the results of these two tests which showed that the ornate design was the favorite where the conscious attention was on the design; whereas the simple design won out where the conscious attention was not on the design of the package.
Numerous tests on an unconscious level have demonstrated that in the store the typical shopper is not even aware that boxes and labels are designed. Therefore, when you ask for opinions about a package design you are asking the person to become conscious of the design and to take on the role of an art critic but you are not at all getting a buying situation in a store.
For those of us who have studied the history of the fine arts it is not difficult to see why most people consciously choose intricate instead of simple designs, although unconsciously they generally react more favorably to simple art and pattern.
Our aesthetic concepts are still dominated by traditional craft standards and, therefore, the more intricate the design the finer we believe it is. The masses of people associate intricacy and great detail with great art. To the great majority, the more intricate the design, the more beautiful it is, and also the greater is the artist who created it.
In the routine of daily life, however, when they are not conscious of art, people try to escape intricacy whenever they can. Complicated patterns like complicated problems and situations are normally avoided when they are not associated with aesthetics or beauty.
We have conclusive evidence that package designs should not be judged in terms of art if they are intended to serve as marketing tools. The package design is composed of images and colors each of which produces a specific sensation, favorable or unfavorable. Packages have no relation to fine art standards or aesthetic concepts and rarely are they a conscious concern of the shopper.
Action-Motivating and Non-Action-Motivating Attitudes
An expressed attitude may or may not be action-motivating. I may declare a friendly attitude toward tea, for example, and yet not want to buy tea at all. My friendly attitude, or rather my lack of unfriendly attitude toward tea, may be solely due to the fact that I do not believe tea to be poisonous. When I go to the store I buy coffee. Consumers often express a friendly attitude toward a certain brand of coffee and yet, at the store, they buy other brands of coffee.
You may have a friendly attitude toward a billboard. That does not necessarily mean that you will be attracted by this billboard or that it will influence you to buy the product to which the billboard directs you.
The following study shows that expressed attitudes are not necessarily action-motivating. A group of about seventy business and professional men were shown a number of signs designed for an oil company together with signs of three other oil companies. They were asked which of the signs they liked best. One of the old signs received forty-six votes. An investigation later showed that of the forty-six men twenty-one did not buy any one particular oil or gas and of the remaining twenty-five only four men used the gas sold by the company whose sign they admired.
This investigation demonstrated that just because the men liked the sign did not mean that they bought the oil. The sign did not convince them that the oil it advertised was good or economical. They merely liked the sign itself as a work of art, independent of the purpose of the sign.
Another excellent demonstration of the difference between what people say and what they do or want is a test conducted with head scarves, popularly known as babushkas, in six distinctly different designs and color schemes. Eighty-five club women were asked “Which of the six kerchieves is in your opinion the most beautiful?” Sixty-six chose No. 6. Then a product identifying contest was conducted with the same group of women and the kerchieves were offered as prizes. Out of the sixty-six women only nine wanted the No. 6 design for which they had voted only about one hour before. Obviously, what the women said was the most beautiful and what they actually wanted differed greatly.
It is not difficult to see that when the women were asked for an opinion of the scarves, they did not associate the scarves as part of their wardrobes but merely as abstract entities, as mere designs. When the scarves were offered as prizes and brought about a possibility of possession of the article, the scarf was looked at by each woman in relation to her wardrobe and her complexion. The first expressed attitude was not action-motivating on the part of the fifty-seven women out of the sixty-six. Only when choice had real personal meaning to them did the club women express a true choice.
Determining the Character of a Design
What management wants in a package design is an effective marketing tool and this cannot be achieved by having artists create a half-dozen or more comprehensive designs and then making a choice of one out of the group. Such procedure, although commonly practiced, is worthless and contributes to numerous marketing failures.
Even if we should find out which of a half-dozen designs is the best marketing medium, we still do not know how effective a selling medium the best design of the six really is. We know only that it may be better than any of the other five designs. We do not know how poor each of the other designs is, nor do we know what makes one design better than the other, nor whether the best design can be improved and made a still more effective marketing medium.
When a scientist finds an unknown animal in the jungle, his objective is to learn to which species it belongs. He examines the anatomy, the skull, mouth structure; he studies the food and mating habits. From this information he can classify the animal. We must use a similar scientific approach if marketing research is to be a reliable tool.
A package design or a magazine ad generally consists of a rectangular three-dimensional shape, a geometric or realistic two dimensional image on the front of the package, type faces, pattern and color. Each of these produces a distinct unconscious effect. The diversity of elements often produces conflicting sensations as for example the relative effects produced by soft color and a hard image or harsh color and soft delicate line.
In order to be able to determine whether a design as a whole will have maximum effectiveness as a marketing medium, we must first measure the character of each individual element and then determine the inter-relationship of all the components. Obviously if we determine the nature of each of the elements of a package design or advertising page, we can then proceed to adopt the favorable ones and improve or eliminate the poor ones.
Determining Image Effectiveness
When the effectiveness of geometric figures or abstract images, such as ovals, triangles, rectangles, scrolls, etc. were tested, we found that some of the images had greater acceptance than others. For example, in comparison with a triangle, circle and rectangle, the oval had a much greater preference rating.
The tests also showed that a shape or image does not necessarily have great retention power just because it has a high preference or acceptance. For example, although the triangle was both consciously and unconsciously often rejected in favor of the oval, whereas the oval was both consciously and unconsciously widely accepted, the triangle nevertheless remained in the memory with a greater number of people than the oval. In other words, the triangle had a higher retention rating than the oval, although its preference rating was not nearly as high as that of the oval. Rounding the angles of the triangle produced greatly increased acceptance among women and some increased acceptance among men. Increased roundness raised the preference rating further.
We found that the simpler the image, the higher the preference as well as the retention rating. A multi-angled snowflake drawing had both low preference and retention ratings. We also learned that ovals and triangles had among the highest preference and retention ratings.
