Abstract

Based on arousal theory, this study explores the impact of product–background color combination on consumers' product evaluations through four empirical analysis. As predicted, the interaction of product–background color combinations and product types has a significant influence on consumers' product evaluations. For functional products, the product–background similar color combination can cause consumers' higher product evaluations. However, for sensory‐social products, the product–background contrastive color combination can cause consumers' higher product evaluations. Moreover, the arousal level mediates the interaction effect of product–background color combinations and product types on consumers' evaluations. This research also demonstrates that only when the product color matches product type, the interaction of product–background color combinations and pro- duct types can improve consumers' product evaluations through increasing (decreasing) the arousal level, however, the interaction effect is no longer significant when the matching degree of product color and product type is low. We contribute to the visual marketing research by providing new insights and useful implications for using color clues to present products in marketing practice.

Keywords

Arousal level, Product color, Product evaluation, Product type, Product–background color combination

本文于2020年4月在线发表于Psychology & Marketing。该期刊为学院B+类奖励期刊，王正荣、刘洪亮、余利琴系黄静教授指导的博士研究生。文章的网址链接：https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/mar.21361