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:
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Impressive list. I heard about similar things in marketing before but not that detailed. I think I’ll ask someone to buy me The Culturally Customized Web Site for x-mas. Thanks.
Hello Jabz,
Yes, it can be difficult to find a good list of the cultural definitions of color. I think it’s because it is hard to generalize
- the cultural meanings often have varying degrees of nuance.
- definitions can change fairly rapidly with current events and interpretations.
- within each country there are different markets, demographics etc, and this influences color definitions a lot too
That’s why I don’t always agree 100% with some of the definitions I find.
As always current specific research is best compared to an old general list of definitions.
thank goooodness we can see in colour
some animals see in black and white
can’t stand wishy washy colours – it’s a faze i’m going through
thank gooooness for those IT geniouses girls and boys that have developed software that enables me to tinker with colour!
This article was a great help to me for an assignment on the use of color in international graphic design. Thank you.