The Effect of ‘Cold’ Images on Consumers
New advertising research out of Japan has revealed a remarkable impact that images have on viewers when a picture depicts something cold versus a so-called “warm image.” The researchers found that ads “with imagery conveying a feeling of coldness can positively influence consumer behavior and perception about a product.”
Prior consumer behavior research had shown that warm images (visualize a tropical sunset) tend to create positive emotions, while cold has had an overall negative connotation (think of someone shoveling snow).
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A research team led by Taku Togawa, an associate professor from Sophia University in Japan, noted that advertising images can be “a powerful tool to convey the qualities of a product to consumers.” This research was coauthored by Dr. Hiroaki Ishii from Aoyama Gakuin University, Dr. Jaewoo Park from Chuo University and Rajat Roy from Bond University. The study was published in the Journal of Business Research.
The team said in a statement that how imagery can be used “to communicate an idea of ‘newness’ has been rarely addressed,” adding they demonstrated “that coldness and cold imagery can be leveraged to increase the perceived newness of a product, paving the way to a consistent psychological framework of newness perception and to more effective advertisements.”
Just as nature images instill sustainability and eco-friendliness, photos in ads showing ice, snow, and winter scenes with certain products conjure feelings of newness, and even innovation, in consumers.
Togawa said coldness often has a more negative association, noting, for example, that people “regularly use expressions such as, ‘She gave me the cold shoulder’ or ‘His comment froze me in place.’” Togawa said consumer researchers have shown that warm temperatures increase consumers’ evaluation “and purchase intention for a given product more than cold temperatures. However, our study sought to prove that, in the context of advertising for new products, coldness is not always a negative factor in consumer behavior.”
To conduct the research, the team used construal level theory to determine “newness perception.” Then, based on prior research that found the perception of coldness can increase a subject’s psychological distance to an object, the team “theorized that cold imagery could be leveraged to enhance the perception of newness for a product. Put simply, by amplifying the psychological distance to a product using cold imagery, the consumer’s perceived ambiguity about that product will increase, which in turn will cause them to identify it as ‘novel’ and engage their curiosity,” the researchers said in a statement.
The team then conducted several experiments where respondents were shown fake product ads that either had warm or cold images to determine the impact and support their theory.
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