The Impact Of Color And Its Different Associations In Multicultural Marketing

This weeks Get International Clients Newsletter starts a series of articles on how to culturally customize your website.

The feature article this week focuses on the choice of color and their different meanings in different cultures.

As this subject interests most readers, I have completed the list of colors here to keep as a reference in the Multicultural Marketing 101 Guide, which you can find in the list of other useful Guides to your right.

The use of color plays a role in cross cultural communication.

Some Cultures Have Richer Vocabularies For Colors

First let’s look at the different numbers of words in different vocabularies.

Some languages have a wider choice of words to describe certain colors. These words may actually refer to very different shades or variations of a color.

Different cultures pay more attention to the variations of certain colors. Here are some examples:

• Eskimos have many different words to describe snow and its color.
• In India the different variations of the color brown are described with precision.

Color Associations

Colors can be used to express emotions in most cultures. And these colors change and are associated with different colors depending on the culture.

Here are some associations frequently made with colors in different countries.

Black

• Germany – Death, grief, hopelessness and formality
• Mexico – Mourning and respect
• United States – Death, sophistication and formality
• United Kingdom - Death and formality

Blue

• Germany - Loyalty and formality
• Greece - National pride
• India - Heavens, love and truth
• Israel - Holiness
• Scandinavia - Cleanliness
• United States - Justice and official business

Green

• Arab Middle East – Holiness
• Egypt - Fertility
• Germany – Hope and Conservation
• Ireland – Nationalism and Catholicism
• Malaysia - Danger associated with forest and diseases.
• United States - Safety

Purple

• Italy – Color of the church, authority
• Latin America – Death
• United States – Nobility, law and bravery

Red

• Africa – Death and bloodshed
• China - Communism, celebration, good luck, joy and fertility
• Greece – Love and good luck
• India – Birth and fertility
• Mexico – Religion and vibrancy
• Scandinavia – Strength
• United Kingdom Authority, government and power
• United States - Warning, passion and spicy

White

• Africa - Victory and purity
• China - Death, mourning and purity
• India - Death, rebirth and serenity
• United States - Virginity
• Western cultures - Purity

Yellow

• Germany – Envy and jealousy
• India – Commerce
• Israel – Saintliness
• Scandinavia – Warmth
• United States – Visibility, caution and faith

Color Combinations

Certain color combinations have meanings too. Here are a few examples:

• Black on red – symbolizes happiness in China
• Red on white – symbolizes celebration in Japan

Color Associations With Other Words

Colors can be associated with people and different things.

Red

In Japanese red is associated with being:

• sincere of heart or “red heart”
• a perfect stranger or “red stranger”
• stark naked or “red naked”

Blue

In Japanese blue is associated with:

• “a blue-eyed outsider” is a white Caucasian
• “blue breath” is an anxious sigh
• “a blue things shop” is a vegetable shop
• “a blue tower” is a brothel

Black

In German black is associated with:

• “to drive black” is to drive without a license
• “a black seer” is someone who has a television but doesn’t pay the TV license and it also refers to a pessimist.
• “a black sender” refers to a private broadcasting station

Use This As A Basic Introduction To Color

Find out if there is a strong cultural association with certain colors in your target country.

The best way to verify the right use of colors is to have your website and cross cultural communication materials reviewed by an appropriate person in your target country.

Most of the time you will not need any further help with color associations. When in doubt ask for professional cultural marketing advice.

Source For This Article

This article is largely inspired by the book The Culturally Customized Web Site, published in 2005, with some of my own personal knowledge and online resources.

I am a little weary as to the value of current associations with some of the colors as referenced in this book.

Color associations can lose their power, become out-dated and new cultural associations can be created.

Some of the color associations are not all-encompassing – you can still use these colors in other circumstances without an automatic association. But you should give particular consideration if you refer to a topic directly associated with a color. Look at the associations for yellow in the United States.

This book is the best reference source I have come across on the meanings of colors. I highly recommend reading it if you are interested in customizing your any of your communication to different cultures, online or offline. You can read a full book review here.

Get Current Color Interpretations

Society evolves and so do color associations in most countries. Use this list of color associations as a very broad guideline.

If you are creating a localized website or culturally customized content for a specific country, it is always best to get appropriate professional feedback on your choice of colors.

There is more than the simple choice of colors. Different cultures have different tastes. What works well in one country may have disastrous results in another country – even if the colors are “right”.


You can read more on cross cultural marketing here:

• Multicultural Marketing 101 Guide