Yellow Paint Colors: Which is Better? Bold vs. Safe

We study consumer preferences all the time at Alluminare. We like to call it "Alluminare Labs" - our behind-the-scenes look at what people prefer. Our approach to Alluminare has always been to let people be the driving force of our product development (not just what we think is cool). And now, we are starting to share this information with anyone who wants it.

So in this week's Alluminare Labs study, we decided to look at Yellow paint colors. Why? Well, Pantone(TM) has released it's Color of the Year (Mimosa), and with Spring coming up, we're seeing a ton of bright, cheery yellow out there. And we wanted to see what 100 random people thought. Would they actually like it in their homes?

Our survey showed two very simple walls. One with a bold color to mimic the Pantone Mimosa color, and one to mimic Benjamin Moore's Weston Flax paint color (a butter yellow that is quite popular)--- A "bold" and a "safe" option.

Here's the survey we sent to 100 people this week:
Which wall color do you prefer for a living room?

Safe

Bold

Why do you prefer it?

We also asked respondents to tell us where they lived (urban, suburban, rural, etc.) and age/gender.

Results of the Yellow Paint Color Survey

The results were surprising. We watched them as they came in, and at first, it looked like nearly everyone selected the "safe" butter yellow paint option. But then, we started seeing more and more go for the "bold" yellow paint option. We were stunned to see that the "bold" color option received about the same number of preferences over the "safe" color option.

All respondents
52% favored the "safe" butter yellow option
48% favored the "bold" yellow option

Men
52% favored the "safe" butter yellow option
48% favored the "bold" yellow option

Women
52% favored the "safe" butter yellow option
48% favored the "bold" yellow option

Suburban
47% favored the "safe" butter yellow option
53% favored the "bold" yellow option

Urban
44% favored the "safe" butter yellow option
56% favored the "bold" yellow option

Rural
57% favored the "safe" butter yellow option
43% favored the "bold" yellow option


Men and women were split in exactly the same ways. Urban dwellers preferred the "safe" option slightly: We had assumed that urban dwellers would be more willing to take the risk, but it seem that suburban dwellers are more likely to favor the daring, bolder yellow paint option. Rural dwellers preferred the "safe" yellow paint option by a larger margin than any other domicile grouping

In the final analysis, we'd like to go back and survey a larger sample to see if we can get a bigger preference differential. If we decide to survey a larger sample, we'll post the results here.

Comments from respondents

Here are some comments we were interested in:

"It is more alive, and would still match with many furniture sets." (Bold, Suburban, Male, 34)

"I like to relax at home, in the living room. The bolder color would rev my nerves up more, after awhile. The safe color is bland but soothing." (Safe, Suburban, Female, 37)

"With the white couch, the bold color really makes the couch pop out. I can imagine then using some bold color pillows and accessories to really liven things up. I think also with the gloominess of the recession, a bold color lifts my spirits."
(Bold, Urban, Female, 57)

See for yourself

We've posted the raw data on our server. Go ahead and pull it down and take a look at it yourself. It is in .csv format so you can import into any software you wish.
Download it now

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We have a team of scientists on deck at all times just waiting to study something. Just let us know what topics interest you and we can work them into the schedule! (Just kidding about the team of scientists, but feel free to post a comment with your request.)