Black Friday Signage Graphics Tips

In-store signage can positively impact your sales and the overall customer shopping experience. How you design your signage, right down to the graphics, text and color, has an affect on the type of impact they will have.

Research and studies suggest that each individual color triggers unique senses, feelings and reaction in the human brain.

According to this sourced blog from Insights In Marketing, 93% of consumers said the most important factor of any product is its visual appearance. 85% of those consumers suggested that color was a factor that heavily influenced their view of a product.

Black Friday is the official kickoff of Christmas and the holiday shopping season. While red and green might be most closely associated with Christmas, black and red are the most dominantly used colors in holiday shopping season advertising signage. That is also the case with most SALE signage as well and there are likely several factors that go into that decision.

Using the color black in “Black Friday” signage and adds is a simple marketing tool that takes out the guess work for the ad planners and as a bonus, is a quick clue to customers because the color is in the name of this shopping holiday.

Even though it’s obvious because of its name, the psychology-based reasons of using the color in advertising signage makes sense for any time of year, especially from a brand perspective.

Emotions and Reactions Evoked by Color

Black

• Power
• Luxury
• Sophistication
• Authority
• Decisiveness

These are mostly positive reactions you would want a potential buyer to have towards your brand when seeing your logo and graphics on a banner or advertisement.

It can be hard to stand out using the color black in your signage because it isn’t a color that immediately catches the eye like others. There are several colors that you would want to avoid using for the text of your signage if the background of the banner or display is black. The obvious color choice for text in this instance is white because of the contrast. It will successfully make your text more visible, even if the entirety of the banner doesn’t “pop” out like more colorful designs might. Getting across your message clearly to customers on Black Friday and during the holiday shopping season is an important task to accomplish, which is why this color scheme tends to be so popular and effective. 

Red

• Urgency
• Power
• Excitement
• Energy
• Attention

These are emotions that companies want potential buyers to have, especially on days like Black Friday and during the holiday shopping season. Many shoppers are already likely to have these emotions and reactions the day of these sales but having red signage and graphics leading up to and on Black Friday is going to increase those types of responses.

Red is so commonly used for SALE signage, especially during Black Friday and the holiday shopping season because of the reactions associated with it and because it fits the color scheme of Christmas and the holiday shopping season overall. It can be effectively combined with the color black as well. Although black can darken or dull colors combined with it, it still works well as a color combination with red. White text is also most commonly used and recommended on banners with red backgrounds.

Green

• Wealth
• Prestige
• Health
• Growth
• Reliability

Despite its connection to Christmas and the holiday shopping season, green isn’t a color you will be likely to see as often as black and red in advertising signage. That might be because these reactions and associations with the color aren’t as sales inspired as red. These are good associations to have with a brand or product, but they don’t trigger buying impulses, which is what businesses are looking for during this time of year.

That doesn’t mean you should avoid staying away from using the color in your banner displays. Green and red are still excellent complementary colors and the immediate association with using those colors in compliment to each other will be Christmas. Whatever you are looking to advertise during the holiday season, the green and red combination can be effective in tapping into buyer emotion and awareness.

Sources and resources
https://www.shopify.com/retail/store-signs-and-red-signs
https://brightside.me/article/the-ultimate-color-combinations-cheat-sheet-92405/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/311311392966175623/