Different colours mean different things in different places. This is extremely important for designers to know because without an awareness of the cultural significance of a particular color, one may risk offending the entire target audience.

Purple for example is a colour of mourning in Thailand. In western culture however, it is associated with royalty, luxury, wealth and sometimes magic. Many times purple color is used for the expensive perfume bottle packaging design. The brand colour for Thai Airways is purple. On first glance this seems like a huge error on their part because as mentioned above, purple is a colour of mourning in Thailand.

It is most likely however, that the Thai Airways website isn’t aimed at locals but at tourists, therefore if westerners view the site and see purple it will associate Thai Airways with values such as luxury and comfort.

• In western cultures black is a colour of mourning
• In Japan however it is a colour of honour, with white the colour of mourning
• Red in the west represents danger, love, passion, in India it is a colour of celebration (marriage), in China it is a colour of good luck and in South Africa it is a colour of mourning
• Yellow represents courage in Japan, celebration of Spring Season, mourning in Egypt and hope in the West

 (http://thinkvitamin.com/design/how-colour-communicates-meaning/ March 19th 2012)