As a follow up to our previous blog “What Colours to Choose When Home Staging in the Toronto Market”, which focused on how geographic location can impact our natural behaviours towards colour.
I would like to touch on how different cultural backgrounds perceive colour and
how to be truly - neutral.
If you live in the Toronto area or somewhere like Toronto, you know it is made up of many different nationalities and therefore important to consider how cultural or religious attitudes can elicit different responses to different colours.
On that note, I think it is fair to say there are many factors that influence an individual’s attitude and behaviour towards colours and this is not to suggest it is simply geographic or cultural; however it is important to be mindful that different cultures associate different meanings with colours.
How do cultural perceptions of colour relate to home staging?
Home Staging 101: Home staging should be as neutral as possible in order to appeal to the broadest number of buyers. Right?
Therefore, if you want to get the largest response to your listing it is important to keep your listing as “neutral” as possible.
That brings me to the question, What do I mean by “neutral”?
I often see many people refer to neutral as relating to neutral colours such as brown, grey, white, etc.
What I am suggesting is, if you are staging a home in a multi-ethic community or neighbour within a city such as Toronto, you should try to consider being “neutral” by avoiding choosing colours that could reflect any meaning and may unintentionally elicit a negative buyer response.
Please see a list of colours below and their implied cultural meaning.
WHITE: Symbolizes mourning or death in East Asia, but happiness and purity in Australia, New Zealand and USA
BLUE: The most popular and most common corporate color in the U.S. is perceived as cold and evil in East Asia but stands for warmth in the Netherlands; interestingly coldness in Sweden; death in Iran and purity in India. Blue denotes femininity in Belgium and the Netherlands, but masculinity in Sweden and the USA
GREEN: Represents danger or disease in Malaysia, envy in Belgium, love and happiness in Japan and sincerity, trustworthiness and dependability in China.
RED Means unlucky in Nigeria and Germany, but lucky in China, Denmark and Argentina. It reflects ambition and desire in India and love in China, Korea and Japan
YELLOW: Represents warmth in the USA, but infidelity in France. It is associated with jealousy in Russia, but pleasant, happy, good taste, royalty in China. In Brazil purple and yellow are perceived as symbolic of sorrow and despair.
PURPLE: Purple is the color of love in China and South Korea. Anger and envy in Mexico, sin and fear in Japan. Purple is considered expensive in China also.
(Sable, Paul; Akcay, Okan; “Color: Cross Cultural Marketing Perspectives as to What Governs Our Response To It.”, asbbs.com, November 10, 2011, http://asbbs.org/files/2010/ASBBS2010v1/PDF/S/Sable.pdf)
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