Retail Sales Audit 2023
We’ve taken a deep dive into the use of colour across various Sales Campaigns to uncover key insights into how brands are captivating their audiences.
Seeing Red.
When we think about Retail sales campaigns we often have preconceived ideas about what colours make people think or feel: Red = Sales. The foundation for the use of Red makes sense when we delve into the colour psychology behind it. Red can capture attention. It is associated with excitement, passion, desire, energy, and action.
Red is an intense colour and can provoke the strongest emotions and seems to scream: ‘Look at me’!
But, what happens when your target audience is being ‘screamed at’ by all your competitors?
People have the innate ability to block out things when overwhelmed with a sea of Red sales signage. The choice of colour for retail sales campaigns needs to be more strategic and nuanced than this, in order to compete in an ever changing, competitive market.
Retailer Audit Insights:
We looked at Retailer Sales Campaigns across Sydney and Melbourne during the mid-year sales, where we were able to observe:
Red
Red is still the predominate colour used in Sales Campaigns.
Very few Retailers had a visual link back to their brand.
Only a few Retailers had a supporting message or theme with their Sales Campaigns.
As a whole, Retailers using only Red also used very similar messaging, font and graphic treatments - making it hard to differentiate between them.
Yellow
Retailers that linked Sales messaging back to brand stood out. i.e ‘Best Clearance’.
Use of ‘Clearance’ over ‘Sale’ was an interesting way of breaking up the repetitive ‘Sale’ message.
Yellow and black was the 2nd most used colours after red across Sales Campaigns.
Other Colours
Retailers that used unconventional colours for Sales Campaigns (not just red or yellow) were more memorable.
Some retailers chose a colour that complimented their brand.
I.e Peter Alexander used a gradient colour that extended on the master brand pink/ purple. Jay Jays used green and white for Sales, complimenting their master brand blue and white.Messaging such as ‘Spend & Save’ and ‘the little Target event’ gave greater context and an emotional link to the offering over generic ‘SALE’ messaging.
Key Insights:
Storytelling and Sale
Shoppers are now spending more time bargain hunting, either searching for the best deals online, in stores, or both. Value, Affordability and Convenience are all logical motivators, which means Retailers will have to work harder to win over the customer emotionally.
This current research is compelling and should motivate Retailers to invest more time into elevating the value proposition of their brand:
Discount driven marketing often pushes storytelling and customer experience down the investment priority list, with 39% of Retailers reporting a decrease in customer loyalty. When Retailers fail to connect with their consumer on a more meaningful platform than price, loyalty and longevity suffers.
Our Top Tips
The use of colour has the unique ability to attract certain types of consumers and impact shopping behaviour, but we have an opportunity to create a reason beyond price, or to give reason to price through:
Reason for being
What key insights can you tap into to support your next sales campaign?
If your brand is competing with multiple retailers offering the same thing?
What is the emotional driver directing traffic in store?
1
Context is King
Where and when is the campaign or product being promoted?
How is it living in store and online?
Does it support how you wish to portray your brand?
2
For the people
Dig deep into your key audience demographic - their age, gender, cultural associations, biases and socio-economic drivers are part of the mix that helps you decide on the look of your Sales Campaign.
3
Competitors
Who are you competing with and how are they reaching their customers?
Are you doing the same thing? Is this allowing your brand to clearly stand out, or get lost in the crowd?