About 80% customers indicate that colour influences their purchase: Satish Nayak

Showcasing the importance of colour in the retail space, In-Store Asia 2015 held a session on "Understanding Colour - How to Use Colour to Create a Positive Retail Environment” by Satish Nayak, Colour Consultant, Colour Mechanics, a specialist in implementation of ISO 12647 standards. The company deals in colour management system implementation and printing company auditing.

Satish spoke in detail about brand colour recall, science of colour, challenges that we face, importance of correct lighting and fun with colours. "The number one complaint from print buyers is inconsistent colour. Brand owners want colour matching globally and 41.3 per cent indicate colour matching is the most difficult problem,” he said. Satish added that 70 per cent of customers make their choice in front of the shelf and over 80 per cent customers indicate colour being one of the primary reason they pick up the product.

Nayak shared with the audiences the challenges like lighting, textures and backgrounds that are faced by architects. "Colour is a perception. When light falls on a particular object, the object absorbs all the colours of the light and reflects region of spectrum corresponding to its own colour. Till the 17th century, colour was myth and pure wizardry, Sir Isaac Newton exposed the science behind it.”

The phenomenon of colour is the results from the physical interaction of light energy with an object. For the observer, when physical and subjective are combined, colour becomes a psychophysical response.

Satish summarised the session by saying that the colour perception is a human vision and a very efficient'good enough' system for outdoor use. There are many factors that can affect our perception of colour and although our eyes are excellent at comparing colours in grey detail, it is not possible to turn off the inputs from a wide field of view.