The Psychological Effect of Color Names

Product names should combine a set of information and offer customers orientation in larger assortments. This gives product names the ability to contribute toward the ultimate purchase decision: customers who feel that the name is both relevant and appealing will tend to buy the product. For that reason, color names for interior paints, nail polish or car paint are labeled with adjectives and words with positive connotations to appeal to customers’ emotions. When an extravagant person seeks out a color for his or her living room, colors that appeal will be those that reflect that aspect of the customer’s personality.

The product name, therefore, addresses the customer’s personality and encourages the customer to make the purchase. The psychological aspects of colors play a significant role in this regard. When parents want to paint the bedroom of a child who is anxious and easily disturbed, a color that is described in terms that evoke calm, poise, and a balanced character will appeal to them.

Maybe you have already noticed that manufacturers in the automotive industry have long ceased to rely on "normal" color names or even any standard abbreviations. For example, "white" today is named "Oxy-White Pearlescent Effect" and black turned to "Autumn Mystery Black".

Conveying Values with Color Names

Product names also symbolize brand values. A compelling name that convinces the customer will reduce the risk of a purchasing decision that the customer will ultimately regret. Product names signify quality and reliability.

The ideal name therefore provides distinct benefits due to the fact that it embodies a specific, desirable image, for instance by giving interior paint or nail polish colors a distinct character of its own. A green color is no longer simply called “green” but “Emerald Wings.” Emerald is associated with something valuable and special, and emerald green is a shade that attracts attention to itself.

If the description appeals to customers’ emotions, they will ultimately buy the product or at least becomes curious. The role of a color name that is built on emotion, therefore, consists of ensuring that customers are fascinated by the product’s characteristics and creating an emotional link. This requires a message that appeals to the customer. With a creatively conceived color naming, you can reach the target group in a very targeted way.

"ICONails" nail polish of the Catrice product range has playful color names like "Donut worry be happy!"

In the best case, the color name awakens positive emotions, differentiates from the competition, creates vitality and attractiveness. Not only the names of the company, brand and product generate a certain image, but also the name of colors - as long as the colors play a central role, as is the case with lipsticks or in fashion, for example.

And the great thing about color names is that there are no limits to creativity when creating name ideas, as these examples in cosmetics show. Meanwhile, there are special name generators for color names. One combines colors with numbers, another generator pairs English color names with a keyword and creates for example "Gold Pink Beauty". If you are curious about color names in other languages, what can be quite exotic for your ears, try the German Color Names tool.

What unusual or beautiful color names have you discovered? We look forward to your comment below :-)