IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/mktlet/v24y2013i2p165-176.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

To be or not to be different: Exploration of norms and benefits of color differentiation in the marketplace

Author

Listed:
  • Lauren Labrecque
  • George Milne

Abstract

Building a strong brand identity is central for increasing brand equity. As a result, oftentimes, brands develop differentiation strategies in order to stand out from competitors. Yet, is value always gained through differentiation, or is it possible that some value could be forfeited by straying too far from established product category associations? This research examines color norms within product categories and addresses the question of whether visual differentiation is always helpful. With data for 281 top brands, the authors calculate product category color homogeneity scores for 15 product categories and 40 subcategories to empirically explore color norms. Then, these calculations are used in conjunction with brand equity scores to examine the relationship between color differentiation and brand performance. The results show that while color differentiation is helpful for some product categories, it can also be harmful for others. Specifically, the investigation reveals that adhering to color norms may be beneficial for product categories containing a dominant market leader, especially high-involvement categories. The results of this research highlight the existence of visual product category norms, and emphasize both the benefits and risks of visual differentiation should be considered. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Lauren Labrecque & George Milne, 2013. "To be or not to be different: Exploration of norms and benefits of color differentiation in the marketplace," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 165-176, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:24:y:2013:i:2:p:165-176
    DOI: 10.1007/s11002-012-9210-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11002-012-9210-5
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11002-012-9210-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nedungadi, Prakash, 1990. "Recall and Consumer Consideration Sets: Influencing Choice without Altering Brand Evaluations," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 17(3), pages 263-276, December.
    2. Punj, Girish & Moon, Junyean, 2002. "Positioning options for achieving brand association: a psychological categorization framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(4), pages 275-283, April.
    3. Ian Sinapuelas & William Robinson, 2009. "Entry for supermarket feature me-too brands: An empirical explanation of incidence and timing," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 183-196, June.
    4. Meyers-Levy, Joan & Tybout, Alice M, 1989. "Schema Congruity as a Basis for Product Evaluation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(1), pages 39-54, June.
    5. Gerald J. Gorn & Amitava Chattopadhyay & Tracey Yi & Darren W. Dahl, 1997. "Effects of Color as an Executional Cue in Advertising: They're in the Shade," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(10), pages 1387-1400, October.
    6. Ralf van der Lans & Rik Pieters & Michel Wedel, 2008. "—Competitive Brand Salience," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(5), pages 922-931, 09-10.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Machiels, Casparus J.A. & Orth, Ulrich R., 2017. "Verticality in product labels and shelves as a metaphorical cue to quality," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 195-203.
    2. Sajeesh, S. & Hada, Mahima & Raju, Jagmohan S., 2020. "The effect of consumer heterogeneity on firm profits in conspicuous goods markets," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 258-280.
    3. Marion Garaus & Georgios Halkias, 2020. "One color fits all: product category color norms and (a)typical package colors," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 14(5), pages 1077-1099, October.
    4. Joon Yong Seo & Debra L. Scammon, 2017. "Do green packages lead to misperceptions? The influence of package colors on consumers’ perceptions of brands with environmental claims," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 357-369, September.
    5. Martinez, Luisa M. & Rando, Belén & Agante, Luisa & Abreu, Ana Maria, 2021. "True colors: Consumers’ packaging choices depend on the color of retail environment," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    6. Minjae Sun & Joonseok Kim, 2023. "Sustainability and Brand Equity: The Moderating Role of Brand Color and Brand Gender," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-19, May.
    7. Nima Y. Jalali & Purushottam Papatla, 2016. "The palette that stands out: Color compositions of online curated visual UGC that attracts higher consumer interaction," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 353-384, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jewell, Robert D. & Saenger, Christina, 2014. "Associative and dissociative comparative advertising strategies in broadening brand positioning," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(7), pages 1559-1566.
    2. Marion Garaus & Georgios Halkias, 2020. "One color fits all: product category color norms and (a)typical package colors," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 14(5), pages 1077-1099, October.
    3. Schoormans, Jan P. L. & Robben, Henry S. J., 1997. "The effect of new package design on product attention, categorization and evaluation," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 18(2-3), pages 271-287, April.
    4. Sanktjohanser, Anna & Hörner, Johannes, 2022. "Too Much of A Good Thing?," TSE Working Papers 22-1327, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    5. Chadwick J. Miller & Daniel C. Brannon & Jim Salas & Martha Troncoza, 2021. "Advertising, incentives, and the upsell: how advertising differentially moderates customer- vs. retailer-directed price incentives’ impact on consumers’ preferences for premium products," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(6), pages 1043-1064, November.
    6. Grohs, Reinhard & Raies, Karine & Koll, Oliver & Mühlbacher, Hans, 2016. "One pie, many recipes: Alternative paths to high brand strength," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 2244-2251.
    7. Randall Lewis & Dan Nguyen, 2015. "Display advertising’s competitive spillovers to consumer search," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 93-115, June.
    8. Rik Pieters & Michel Wedel, 2012. "Ad Gist: Ad Communication in a Single Eye Fixation," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 59-73, January.
    9. Elizabeth G. Pontikes & William P. Barnett, 2015. "The Persistence of Lenient Market Categories," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(5), pages 1415-1431, October.
    10. Bong-Goon Seo & Do-Hyung Park, 2020. "The Effective Type of Information Categorization in Online Curation Service Depending on Psychological Ownership," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-13, April.
    11. Inger ROOS & Anders GUSTAFSSON & Bo EDVARDSSON & Peter LANDMARK, 2010. "Should We Differentiate Between Business And Private Customers?," Management Research and Practice, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 2(3), pages 249-263, September.
    12. Nayga, Rodolfo M., Jr. & Shaw, W. Douglass & Silva, Andres, 2006. "The Effect of Risk Presentation on Product Valuation: An Experimental Analysis," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21429, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    13. Ainsworth, Jeremy & Foster, Jamye, 2017. "Comfort in brick and mortar shopping experiences: Examining antecedents and consequences of comfortable retail experiences," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 27-35.
    14. Sheng, Shibin & Pan, Yue, 2009. "Bundling as a new product introduction strategy: The role of brand image and bundle features," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 367-376.
    15. Garay, Urbi & Pérez, Eduardo & Pulga, Fredy, 2022. "Color intensity variations and art prices: An examination of Latin American art," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 158-176.
    16. Nicolau, Juan L., 2012. "The effect of winning the 2010 FIFA World Cup on the tourism market value: The Spanish case," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 503-510.
    17. Erfgen, Carsten & Zenker, Sebastian & Sattler, Henrik, 2015. "The vampire effect: When do celebrity endorsers harm brand recall?," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 155-163.
    18. Mourali, Mehdi & Nagpal, Anish, 2013. "The powerful select, the powerless reject: Power's influence in decision strategies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(7), pages 874-880.
    19. Chaudhuri, Arjun & Ligas, Mark, 2009. "Consequences of Value in Retail Markets," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 406-419.
    20. Sahay, Arvind, 2013. "A Customer Oriented Approach To Identifying Competitive Advantage," IIMA Working Papers WP2013-05-08, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:24:y:2013:i:2:p:165-176. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.