In earlier days I worked on tons of bottle designs for consumer products, and never once got to spec the color out. It was all decided by marketers privy to the unassailable Focus Group Results. They handed me a Pantone chip, and I made sure the renderings matched.
Those of you who are in a position to spec colors might want to look at this, at least if you're designing containers for products meant to be ingested: A recent article in the Journal of Sensory Studies, a scientific journal published by the Society of Sensory Professionals (I swear I'm not making that up) reveals that the color of a dish, plate or bowl affects how the food tastes.
[Researchers] raised an experiment where 57 participants had to evaluate samples of hot chocolate served in four types of plastic cups, the same size but of different colors: white, cream, red and orange with white.The results reveal that the chocolate flavor served in orange and cream colored glasses [were liked] best [by] the volunteers who tested it.
[Other examples include using] more yellow cans to better perceive the taste of lemon soda or cups if they are painted in cool colors like blue, seem to quench thirst better than the warm, like red. And if they are pink, the liquid [has an] even more sugary note.
In other cases, it has been shown that a strawberry mousse dessert [is perceived as] more intense on a white plate [than a black one].
For coffee, a majority of respondents associated the brown package [with] a stronger flavor and aroma, while red is attenuated, and if colored blue or yellow, [drinks are perceived as more soft.]
If you're wondering why there are so many brackets in the excerpt above, these results were translated from a Spanish-language newspaper. Which means that my former nemeses in Marketing at a U.S. corporation may not have access to the data yet. That's fine; they loved those GD Focus Group Results so much, I hope they freaking married them.
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