Colour Meaning Across Cultures
Colour meaning across cultures is the finding that people's readings of colours show similarities in some places and differences in others. A 2000 study in the Journal of International Marketing by Thomas Madden, Kelly Hewett and Martin Roth covered eight countries and also looked at colours matched to a product logo.
What it is
The authors studied how consumers in different cultures interpret and prefer colours and colour combinations. They report both similar and differing meanings across the countries. They also examined colours paired with a product logo and found that some combinations carried a consistent meaning while others were complementary.
In effect
The study's discussion concerns keeping a brand and corporate image consistent across international markets. Read with the colour pairing result, the unit that matters is the colour in context: the palette beside the logo, the product and the market. The practical reading is ours: where meanings overlap a brand can keep its palette as a recognisable asset, and where they differ a local check is a sensible step.
What it does not say
The concept does not say what any colour means in any named country, and this page makes no such claim. It does not rank cultures.
Sources
- Madden, T. J., Hewett, K., & Roth, M. S. (2000). Managing Images in Different Cultures: A Cross-National Study of Color Meanings and Preferences. Journal of International Marketing, 8(4), 90-107. https://doi.org/10.1509/jimk.8.4.90.19795