Nissan Study Finds 86 Percent of European Drivers Have Cars with Wrong Colors

A recent study commissioned by Nissan and conducted by OnePoll found that as many as 86 percent of motorists in Europe were using cars with colors that did not match their personality. The survey that was carried out in July covered 1,000 motorists who owned a car in five countries – France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK. It was found that even with the vast array of color and customization options that are available now, many customers still opted for conservative colors that failed to match their personality.

Nissan carried out the study to highlight the personalization options that are available for the all-new Micra hatchback. The survey found that based on their personality, at least a third of those who participated in the survey should have chosen more striking colors like orange instead of conservative shades like black and grey.

In order to make customization easier for customers, Nissan has developed an innovative Chatbot in collaboration with the well known color psychologist Karen Haller. The chatbot is delivered through Facebook, and is used to assess the user’s personality prior to coming up with the color that would match the motorist with the Micra car color that is perfect for them.

Both the survey and the Chatbot used Karen’s expertise in the field of colour psychology as the basis. Haller has worked with many global brands to understand why consumers opt for the colors they do and has over 20 years of experience in the field. She devised bespoke questions for the survey in order to assess an individual’s preferences and behavior and thus quantify a person’s personality. This is a technique that is commonly used for many psychological assessments like those for job interviews.

When the surveys was completed, the results indicated that though over 50 percent of the participants claimed that they had chosen a car in their favorite color, 86 per cent had chosen the wrong colored car for their personality type. At least two-thirds of the respondents chose more conservative colors with 38 per cent driving black or grey vehicles.

Based on the personality, bright colors like orange should be the top color as they match with people who are fun, energetic and optimistic.

Karen commented that in addition to our personality, social factors are also important when it comes to choice of car colors. In times of economic uncertainty, people resort to what they consider as safe choices – neutral shades like white, grey and black. This is probably why two-thirds of motorists opted for such colors.
Black is also an aspirational color as it is connected with innovative brands and high-end technologies. Color choices are based around aspirations and those with a yen for the finer things in life would opt for black.
Human response to color is built-in and is not something over which we have control. People react to color in different ways, and personality type based on the results of psychometric analysis can reveal a lot about color preferences.

Priyanka Gaitonde, a senior colour designer at Nissan Design Europe, commented: “The design priority for the all-new Nissan Micra from the very beginning was to put the customer at the heart of the vehicle. The new Chatbot is an innovative way of extending what we set out to do in the design studio, to guide customers on the colours most suitable to them.”