Why do men seem to view the world in black and white?  Well, it’s not quite that bad . . . though many women might be difficult to convince.  If you are a woman with a son, brother, or husband who seems to struggle with matching his clothes, it may have been puzzling why that man could never seem to understand why certain colors went together and others simply did not.

At last, the answer!

Two to five percent of the male population is partially red-green color-blind. To that portion of the male population, colors with red and green in them will appear as varying shades of gray.  While the degree of red-green color-blindness varies, the affected men will not be able to see reds or greens well.

This has important, but largely unrecognized, implications in marketing with respect to brochures, ads, and web pages.

Careful consideration should be given to avoiding any colors having either of these components, especially pastels. An exception would be very saturated reds and greens like those of traffic signals, or where the colors do not affect the readability, such as with borders or other separators.

Where you feel it necessary to use shades of red or green, do not use them as background colors (effect equals black ink on gray background) or to visually set off specific items.  Use only the saturated hues of red and green for ink colors.

For example, full page background bleeds using pastels of red or green produces black text on background of varying shades of gray.  An excellent example of this difficulty is a Christmas newsletter or card of red or green with black printing on it.  The person with normal color vision will be able to read it easily.  Such is not the case for the man with red-green color-blindness.

Other examples are orange and turquoise containing red and green respectively.  Orange will appear yellow.  Obviously, yellow ink on a white background will be difficult to read. Turquoise will look as light blue on its background and will be difficult depending on other combinations.

Another principle of visual perception is that anything that is difficult to read won’t be . . . read.  Think about it.  If you look at something that is blurred or otherwise difficult to read, you will simply skip over it unless you really want to know what it says.  Do you want to impose such materials on your customers?  Of course not!

It is surprising how often graphic artists are unaware of this principle.  Unless you are marketing ONLY to women, you must keep it in mind when designing or otherwise managing your marketing campaign.  Unless, of course, you wish abandon 2-5% of your male readers or viewers.

In the pursuit of more and better businesses!

How can I help you with your business?

Paul Elliott

Marketing With Unbelievable Guarantees!™
http://www.MarketingSuccessBlueprint.com/blog

© 2008, Paul Elliott, All rights reserved world wide.