The importance of colour in

candy packaging
A research performed by __________ from class ____
Preface
The question of what makes colour important in candy packaging probably is hugely related
to how colour influences the human brain. In this research assignment I largely go into how
colour influences the purchases we make, especially in sweets.
Index:
1. Front page
2. Preface
3. Index
4. Conclusion
5. Chapter 1: Why do popular brands use certain colours?
6. Chapter 2: How does the colour of the packaging influence a person’s likelihood to
purchase an item?

Log

Date: Worked on: For… long:

24-3-2023 Front page 25 min

Preface 5 min

26-5-2023 Preface 5 min

Research chapter 1 30 min

27-6-2023 Chapter 2 40 min

6-7-2023 Chapter 1 finishing 30 min

Conclusion 25 min
Conclusion
Colour in the packaging of candy is very imported, as it makes it clear what the product is
and also makes the product stand out. The market for candy is very large and when in the
store all you see is the package. To gain any advantage over another competitor you have to
stand out. Colour is one of the biggest factors in this.
Another reason that colour is so important is so that a product is recognisable. The golden
Haribo bears, the brown of the M&M’s they are known things that you recognise the moment
you walk into a store.
And of course marketing is very much based on colour, I mean think of the marketing tricks
Fanta is running right now, where they release a new flavour by showing only the colour and
asking people to guess the taste of their flavour, which is a very clever way of having people
buy their new products just as much as the old known ones.
In a final conclusion to answer the question ‘Why is colour important in the packaging of
candy?’ very simply the answer is: Colour is the reason why people buy a product, why
they’re attracted to it. If your candy wrapper is colourless and boring, people won't recognise
it and they won’t feel attracted to buy it. To make money as a candy company your best bet
is to have your analysts research which colours are popular and just go off of that.
Chapter 1: Why do popular brands use certain colours (in
candy packaging)
M&M’s
We can recognise that the main colour that M&M uses is brown, however I’m going to look at
the three most common colours the brown, yellow and blue packaging (Original, Peanut and
crispy) and the reasons for using them.
The brown in M&M’s packaging was likely originally to make it clear that the colourful candy
was chocolate while also keeping it well hidden as it was part of army rations and so couldn't
stick out.
It is possible that the yellow packaging was made with the opposite goal in mind, the peanut
variant would have to stick out compared to the well known and beloved basic chocolate
variant.
Blue is a colour that is very popular, there have been multiple researches done that have
confirmed that blue is the most common favourite colour, so using it for packaging in general
is a smart strategy.

Haribo
Haribo is a very large candy company so I will solely be talking about the reason behind their
golden packaging of their gummy bears.
Haribo’s gummy bears were originally named Goldbären or gold bears, gold can symbolise
trust or riches. It is possible that Haribo was trying to claim that it was trustworthy and try to
work their way into the consumers hearts or alternatively it is possible that they were trying
to make the customer feel rich when buying their product.

Snickers
Snickers is a popular chocolate bar brand that has stuck with its black package design for a
while now and I will be analysing why that might be so.
Snickers is a chocolate bar, so it being in a dark wrapper might just be to make it clear that it
is chocolate. The sleek look of the packaging with the black colour might also just be a way
to make it feel more like a quick bite which is how it is advertised.

RedBand
RedBand is a candy company that produces largely sweet and sour gummies. Their
packaging is almost always red. A reason for that might be that red is in the name of the
brand and therefor if you see something red in the candy isle you’ll recognise it as RedBand,
but another likely reason is that red stands out, if you’re walking past a candy isle and you
see a square of all red packaged products, you’re tempted to buy something of those
products.

Chapter 2: How does the colour of the packaging influence a

person’s likelihood to purchase an item?

For this chapter I took a survey in which I showed people 6 different variations of candy
wrappers and asked them which they liked most and why. I did this to understand why a
person in a store might judge a candy package on the colour specifically.
Now these answers tell us a lot, first of all the red candy wrapper was chosen the most with
a good 50%, which aligns with what we see in stores. Most candy wrappers are made using
the colour red as the main colour, moreover the reasons why people chose these also tells
us why. Half of the people who chose red were of the opinion that red stood out the most out
of the options they had and even the other half found something about the red colour was
eye-catching, either they thought it fit with the name or found it more soothing to the eyes.
Then of course second place was orange, now orange was a bit of a surprise contender but
if we look at candies that have different packages orange ones are often the most popular
ones, for example Tony’s Chocolonely Salted Caramel or Mentos Fruit have orange as the
main colour. Now the reasons given as to why the subjects picked orange was mainly
because it looked better so there is no real clear indicator there. Blue and purple were both
picked once for vague reasons so I will not be taking these into account for my conclusion.