The Use of Colours in Marketing in Shopping Malls of Mauritius- A Gendered Approach

Abstract

Colours play a vital role in marketing and the way that consumers behave towards a product, service or company. Men and women view colours from different perspectives and this raises the need to understand the psychology of customers. The objective of this study is to determine if colours play any importance when men and women purchase their products respectively. This study also focuses on the product types’ and colours that men and women are most interested during purchase of products and services. The last objective of this study is to find out if men and women associate different meanings with different colours and how marketers can take such perspectives into account when devising their marketing strategies.

A survey was carried out with 150 respondents aged between 18 to 25 years old by using quota sampling, whereby the same amount of men and women were involved. The results showed that both men and women are equally interested in colours in marketing and are both physically and physiologically affected by this marketing phenomenon. The results also show that men and women have common favourite colours for products and associate different colours with different meanings.