Obvious to You

Let's take a minute to think about tigers.

Have you ever looked at a photo of a bright-orange tiger and thought, "How does that bright-orange creature manage to ever sneak up on its prey?"

Here's the answer: to a tiger's prey, the tiger isn't bright orange.

Most of us humans have trichromatic vision: because we have three different types of light-sensitive "cones" in our eyes, we can see a full range of colours. Trichromatic vision, common among humans and some other primates, is considered an evolutionary advantage because it makes finding food (like ripe fruit) and avoiding bright-orange predators easier.

Not every animal is so fortunate. Many animals, including most of the top ten animals hunted by Bengal tigers, have dichromatic vision.

Source: Google Gemini

Animals with dichromatic vision (like most dogs, cats, and deer) only have two types of light-sensitive "cones" in their eyes, and thus see the world primarily in shades of blue, yellow, and grey. They're unable to distinguish between red and green.

And since orange is a combination of red and yellow, what looks like a bright orange tiger to us would look very different to an animal with dichromatic vision.

A bright orange tiger "hiding" in the green grass would be very obvious to you and me.

And almost completely hidden from the tiger's next meal.

So what can bright-orange tigers teach marketers about effective communication?

"Bright orange obvious" to you might be invisible to those who matter the most.

Remember that the next time you need to communicate a benefit of your product or service to your ideal customer.