Usage of Colors in Advertising Industry in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The objective of this study is to identify the Usage of colors in Advertising Industry in Sri Lanka to understand the role of non verbal communication related to colors for effective branding, advertising, packaging and other creative material use to marketing and sales. In order to achieve the objective, secondary data were collected and analyzed from the TV commercial (25) advertisements (100) and for the objective, interviews and discussions were conducted with 20 marketers and customers. Result for the first objective shows that Color does visual excitement in mind which cause to change the attitudes and develop the brand and advertising awareness easily according to social psychology and intra personal communication. The hue can motivate the customers but it differs to culture to culture. Especially brand color is forced to use same color when advertising a brand. The usage of color depends on target group of brand also. Blue, red, orange and yellow are the most used color in Sri Lanka when branding and advertising. The study shows variety of dark colors has used branding and advertising targeting Tamil population. An understanding of cultural colors and symbolism is essential to anyone doing branding and advertising. These associations with color have been a part of many societies for centuries and you must be aware of both the positive and the negative implications of using particular colors when marketing. The study has found that has used cultural colors effectively six out of ten on Branding and advertising. Others haven‘t identified the importance of using cultural colors for their business. In today‘s agile world effective communication become very difficult task and concept of communication getting changing every day. There are key types of communication as nonverbal and verbal communication In human communication. Due to the invent of the mobile communication and the globalization, the non verbal communication such as color communication is becoming very effective and there for in marketing, advertising and branding color communication is becoming more prominent and most effective way of communication. From the perspectives of using colors in adverting should be brand promoting with perfect idea of a brand in addition to sense of target group customers and competitors. This will help them to achieve brand positioning with beliefs and values.