Do you know ROY G. BIV and his colorful family?

Most of us are familiar since elementary school with the mnemonic ROY G. BIV—Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet–the colors of the spectrum.

What you may be less familiar with is the concept that each letter of Mr. Biv’s name—ie, each color—can elicit emotional responses or associations that can help, or hurt, your marketing message.

As a marketer, your goal is to effectively communicate your message. That communication starts with the language you use and includes the graphics and colors you select. By using appropriate color (and using it appropriately) in your designs, you can subtly guide the reader into the emotional state or association you are looking for.

No, it isn’t a cheap parlor trick, and yes, it’s effective. What matters is the culture of the people you are addressing. For after all, society trains us to think and react in certain ways. That group consensus is what makes societies cohesive. To successfully communicate your message you’ve got to think like your intended audience.

For instance, in the US green is the color of nature. If you want to show your company is environmentally aware, you use green in your design. Consider the BP logo which uses green leaves, for heaven’s sake—to very successfully sell gasoline, one of the least environmentally friendly products there is. But in the US, green is also the color of money. Now rethink the BP logo. One color. Two messages. Clever! A visual pun of sorts.

But that same shade of green may mean something entirely different in another society. In Muslim societies, for example, green is the traditional color of Islam. Hence, the emotional response to green is predictably very different. Reverent. Religious. Calm. Sincere.

In Ireland, green is suffused with political irony. It can mean patriotism or Catholicism, a tricky interweaving of country and church. Wars have been fought over degrees of greenness.

Complicating your situation as a US-based marketer, is that we live in a great mixing bowl of cultures. Your message may be understood by some and misunderstood by others. Color can be part of the misunderstanding. So can the image itself.

Take flowers as a seemingly innocent example.

In Germany, pink roses mean “We’re engaged” and yellow roses mean “We’re just friends.” Pick the wrong flowers and you could be sending the wrong message. In the Far East, white flowers are funereal, while in the US those same white flowers symbolize purity. In Polynesia, flowers say “married” or “available” depending on the flower and its position in the wearer’s hair.

Choose the wrong flowers or the wrong colors and you’ve just sent a very mixed message, confusing your readers and probably depressing your response rates.

Hence, selecting the right images, and the right colors within those images—can increase the likelihood that your readers “get” your message the way you want them to get it.

Got it? (And to think my parents wondered what I would do with a master’s degree in folklore. Now they know!)

Anyway, here are common US-centric emotional associations with the colors that comprise ROY G. BIV’s name. Earn extra points for thinking of more real life examples!

RED. Passion. Love, but also danger and emergency.
Valentines, Fire engines, stop signs.

ORANGE. Energy, excitement, enthusiasm, but also caution. Can be exhausting if over used.
School buses. Warning stripes on Roads.

YELLOW. Happiness. Creativity. Good cheer. Contrast with a dark color to enhance effect.
Walmart’s smiley face logo.

GREEN. Spring. Youth. Vitality. Luck. Fertility. Nature. Money.
Every environmentally friendly logo out there.

BLUE. Calmness. Safety. Non-threatening. But also military/patriotism in the US. Universally favorite color. Preferred by men.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield, US Navy.

INDIGO. Royalty. Luxury. Wealth.
Royal anything: Royal Caribbean Cruiselines; Royal Canadian Whiskey.

VIOLET. Spring. Gentleness. Youth.
Fabric softeners, cosmetics, soaps.

And for all you factoid-favoring game-show aficionados out there, here are two colors that aren’t true colors at all:

BLACK. (really the absence of all color) Death. Despair. Mourning. But also power, authority, strength, intelligence and sophistication.
The little black dress; tuxedos, limousines, skull & cross bones.

WHITE. (really the presence of all colors) Purity. Cleanliness. Freshness. New beginnings.
June brides, Ivory Snow.

Twitter: Everywhere in 2009, What's up for 2010?

Tweeters—those who use Twitter—have been telling us that it is the next best thing since 2008. It dawned rather inconspicuously, I gather, filling the ethernet with inane messages about the sender’s activities, real time.

No. I really don’t care that you’re eating a sandwich right now. I mean, really, who would give a flying fig?

Well, apparently a lot of people did care.

Now I’m willing to admit that Twitter is what this decade deserves. It’s the poster child for today’s media: terse and self-gratifying. It’s “Look-at-me!” on Alice-in-Wonderland little pills. Its 140-character maximum is perfect for the attention-deficit age we live in. “Aren’t I wonderful? I’m eating a ham sandwich! It’s super yummy.” It’s all about me, me, ME and it’s on speed.

I guess if I were a Mother wondering what her children were doing at any moment, then Twitter would be an admirable technological eavesdropper into their lives. But I’m not, and I don’t care.

Twitter doesn’t leave room for thoughtful argument development, proper spelling, or any other of the things we English Majors were taught to treasure and emulate.

There’s no doubt that Twitter is a cultural phenomenon. According to the venerated Nielsen thumb-on-the-pulse of Americana ratings, Twitter traffic grew by 1,448% in just 12 months, from May 2008 to May 2009, from 1.2 million unique visitors to an astounding 18.2 million unique monthly visitors.

But the Average Joe is not alone in his adoration of this Cliff Notes’ version of communication. Celebrities by the score flock to the site, schilling their latest project and not coincidentally, promoting themselves. In 140 characters.

I may be a curmudgeon, but I care as much about so-and-so’s new release as I do about that ham sandwich. It’s still all about me! Give me a break.

Well, apparently a break is on the horizon. Now the poetically-inclined are writing poems, Haiku-like in their brevity, and with pithier content than today’s luncheon menu. Life—death—love. In 140 characters. It’s a start.

Can the commercial guys be far behind?

Moonfruit, a web site application provider, celebrated its 10th anniversary in July with a Twitter-based competition to use the company name in tweets. Apple MacBooks went to 10 lucky winners drawn at random. The result was spectacular, driving a 600% increase in traffic to their website, and doubling the Moonfruit subscriber base in just two days.

But before too many more commercial predators hit the Tweetosphere with similar campaigns, Twitter may be clamping down on commercialism entirely or may start charging for commercial usage. Apparently Twitter is so concerned about the potential proliferation of crass commercialism on its network that it wants to squelch messages irritating to hardcore users.

I never knew how important a ham sandwich could be to some people. Go figure.

Anyway, early in 2010 Twitter plans to introduce new premium features for companies using the network. For instance, one feature allows multiple users to contribute their Tweets to a single corporate account. Whether the new features will also promise additional tools for corporate users, or require payment for commercial use is TBD.

Moonfruit aside, marketers don’t know if Twitter is an effective use of time and resources. Although access is free, it takes a significant commitment of time and labor to maintain an effective presence. Furthermore, unlike traditional media which provide easily trackable results, Twitter does not. Does using Twitter pay or not? The jury is still out.

But there are a few folks who are making money off Twitter. At least for a hot minute.

Back in the 1960’s, enterprising college students rented their VW bugs to companies who painted the cars to promote cigarettes and personal hygiene products. Taking a page out of that book, college students today are selling their Tweet time to sponsors. These sponsors then resell the tweets to users on a cost-per-click basis.

The 1960’s rolling billboard craze didn’t last. Commercial sponsors failed to consider that picking up a date while driving a car promoting tampons made the dating scene infinitely harder.

Today, when so many young people stay in touch via Tweets, selling excess Tweet time may impinge on having a social life, too. Only a twit sells his Tweets.

What about "NO!" don't you understand?

If you’ve been paying even the least bit of attention to postal issues, you’d know that Postmaster General Potter has been lobbying everybody within earshot to cut mail delivery on Saturdays. His mantra has been for years that: “It will save the USPS about $3 billion a year!”

Of course, the only ears that matter are on Capitol Hill. But those 535 pairs of ears are pretty busy right now with healthcare bills, illegal alien bills, financial system overhaul bills, earmarks, back biting, back slapping, and goodness knows what all. They barely have time to hear each other screeching. (That tone-deafness may be why their public approval rating has dipped to a miserable 17%!)

Anyway, recently Potter took his message to the Financial Services and General Government Senate Subcommittee. There he proposed no more Saturday service. Surprise!

For clarification and emphasis, he reiterated what he meant:

• NO residential and business mail delivery collections on Saturday.
• NO collecting mail from the few remaining corner blue boxes.

But under intense questioning — OK, maybe it wasn’t so intense—he allowed that apparently “NO” also meant that:

• Post offices that are usually open on Saturdays will remain open.
• Mail going to Post Office boxes on Saturdays will be delivered.
• Bills paid to P.O. boxes will be delivered.
• Mail order prescriptions will be delivered to residences.
• Social Security checks will make it to Grandmother’s house.
• Express Mail collection boxes will be open for business as usual.

Notwithstanding, Congress is expected to reluctantly go along with the plan (after midterm elections). Those in the know expect the Saturday mail to stop no earlier than 2011.