It Is All About Colour – How to Use Colours in Marketing Education

Abstract

Although colours are very much present in the interior decorating of cafeterias, their effect on buying behaviour is not straightforward. The target of this study was to explore the impact the changing of the main colouring and thus the general appearance of a cafeteria has on customer experience and sales. This experiment was made during a course at Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland by its students and with the supervision of the teacher. The cafeteria in question was a living lab operated mainly by students on one of the university campuses. Unfortunately, the unexpected took place in spring 2020, and the coronavirus situation hindered from fully being able to carry out this experiment. The results do to some extent offer interesting implications on colour and customer experience. But, especially the reflections students gave about their increased understanding on the use and impact of colours in general, in the marketing and business content, and their personal life, represent the main findings of this project.