Some things are just black and white—straight forward, right or wrong. When it comes to marketing your brand effectively, color is an important component of communication. Color dramatically impacts your mood, your behavior, and more importantly how a person reacts to your business.
Many studies have been conducted on the psychology of color. That being said, color is apparent all around us and while we might not think about it in detail, it does create a multitude of feelings. In order to communicate your brand effectively to your target audience, you should tap into these emotions or at least consider them when creating your brand color palette.
Here are some questions to ask when choosing and using color to represent your brand:
- How does your client see your logo, your website and your marketing materials, how do the colors make them feel?
- Do the feelings evoked in your client align with your brand and your business goals?
- Is your color palette in contrast to the meaning of your brand, product or service?
- Are your colors in line with your company’s value statement and fit within your industry?
According to marketo.com, if you look at the top 100 brands in the world you begin to see a trend in color use. Color influences purchasing decisions, making it important to note that 29% of the world’s top brands use red, 33% use blue, 28% use black or grayscale and 13% use gold or yellow.
The next time you’re driving around town pay attention to the colors on bank signs, fast-food restaurants, maybe even the package colors on your favorite food items at the grocery store, or even the colors used in the store where you shop. Brands carefully exercise color choices attempting to subconsciously bring about the feelings they want associated with their product or service. The colors are likely chosen very carefully to generate a specific buying reaction by you, the consumer.
Understanding these principles when you select the color to represent your brand is essential to ensure it is sending the right message.
Check out the infographic on color theory below from geeklygroup.com to dive a little deeper into the ’emotion of color.’
Have a colorful day!
