Improving the Purchase Intention by a Color Brand: Verification for Mazda’s Kodo Design

Many companies strengthen their perceived value of products by consistently using the same color. The most representative example is Tiffany Blue, which emotionally connects customers and brands and contributes to their differentiation from competitors. In the automotive industry, Mazda consistently promoted Soul Red based on the concept of the KODO design (soul of motion design). In other words, consumers perceive it as a branded color rather than just a color. Some such cases are found in business, but academic literature is surprisingly scarce. This study formulated the following hypothesis in the Japanese market: consumers who are attracted to Soul Red, developed by Mazda’s KODO Design brand, have a high purchase intention for that brand. This hypothesis was supported by applying propensity score matching to the responses of an online survey. This study suggests that it is important to make efforts to brand the colors themselves rather than showing them as they are. Hence, practitioners should define not only styling but also color brands under the design brand and consistently appeal to increase the competitiveness of the entire product. Treating color in this way would be more effective than treating it objectively.