Colour associations and consumer product-colour purchase decisions

This article describes a conceptual framework for understanding consumer product-colour purchase decisions. Building on previous work, a new primary factor, colour association, is introduced. The purpose of this study is to test whether consumers' colour-associations connect with their product-colour association, and whether colour-association affects consumers' intended product-colour purchase decisions. The study used two research activities (a laboratory experiment and an interview) and two research methods (multiple choice for 6-alternative-forced-choice and multiple choice for rank-order) to investigate which colour a participant would choose if asked to select a product to purchase when there is a range of colours available. Participants were also asked to provide a reason for their decisions. The study finds that the stronger a participant's preference for a colour, the more likely they are to purchase a product in that colour. The data from interviews suggests that, for some of the products tested, participants are highly influenced by the colour association that they would purchase a product-colour on their one of the colour association than other colours. The updated conceptual framework suggests that the colour association factor could be one of the product-colour decision primary factors that influence consumer product-purchase intentions in the absence of consumer personal colour preferences.