Using Color Theory in Branding (Infographic)

Just like words and actions, color is an important component of communication. Color dramatically impacts your mood and your behavior, and more importantly how a person reacts to your business.

Many studies have been conducted on the psychology of color, all by people smarter than this geek. I often refer to these findings when advising clients on a color palette for their business. Color is all around us and while we might not think about it in detail, color evokes feelings.

Specific colors are known to cause anxiety, create hunger, soothe nerves, generate excitement or happiness, maintain health or even bring about feelings of nostalgia. How we interact with color is often very personal, sometimes cultural and always includes some basic rules-of-thumb.  When it comes to color psychology, these rules apply to each of us.

Some questions to ask when choosing and using color to represent your brand, product and/or service?

1. When clients see your logo, your website and your marketing materials, how do the colors make them feel?
2. Do the feelings evoked in your client, align with your brand and your business goals?
3. Is your color palette in contrast to the meaning of your brand, product or service?
4. Are you matching a strong primary color, (such as red), with a more neutral secondary color, (such as grey), or is your combination higher contrast?
5. Are your colors in-line with your company's value statement and fit within your industry?

According to Kathy Lamancusa, blue is the most popular color for Americans followed by green, purple and red. 

A trustworthy color, blue represents masculinity, quality and cooperation. Green is the color of nature and renewal, but is also associated with envy. Purple, the color of Royalty, is associated with authority, power and sophistication. Red, the color of love, lust and passion rounds-out the top four most popular. 

Banks often use blue to convey trustworthiness with your money. Thinking about light pink or magenta for your corporate branding? You might want to reconsider if you’re a bank! A light pink theme is likely targeting the wrong clientele as it is often associated with women’s products and is used to market to teenage girls. You may also want to rethink using light, pastel colors for a boxing gym, or bold, high-contrast colors, such as red and black, for a line of baby clothes.

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.

Next time you’re at the grocery store, pay attention to the colors on cola cans, the package colors on your favorite food items, or even the colors used in the store where you shop.  Brands carefully exercise color choices, attempting to subconsciously evoke the feelings that they want associated with their product or service. The colors were likely chosen very carefully to generate a specific buying reaction by you, the consumer.

Understanding these principles when your company selects color(s) to represent its brand is essential to ensuring your clients are receiving the right message.