Do you find yourself getting attracted to the shops with yellow color in their window? Or do you find yourself wondering why people get more relaxed in green rooms? Or why hospitals are painted in cooler tones? Then you’ve come to the right place as this article delves deeper into understanding color psychology and its importance in branding.
Colors have been well known to influence mood and feeling in common experience, however, there’s a lot more to understand in the field of color psychology.
Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist with the idea that people have a universal, bodily response to color stimulus once stated that “Colors are the mother tongue of the subconscious.”
Color plays an important role, from affecting our first impressions to making other people perceive us in a certain way because of our color preferences. Color psychology is based on the wide range of effects colors have on mental and emotional level, from boosting our moods to causing anxiety.
It is very important for a brand to choose the right colors for branding as colors help convey emotions, feelings and experiences to their customers. Since a brand is going to be directly associated with the scheme it chooses, brands nowadays are using colors to increase recognition and drive purchase decisions of the consumers.
Colors have to be selected carefully for your brand as they’ll influence the brand identity directly. So let’s dive in to understand what each color communicates.
- Yellow, a happy-go-lucky color, evokes feelings of optimism, clarity, and warmth. McDonalds uses this color in its golden arches depicting a kid-friendly and fun brand personality.
- Orange stands for playfulness, vitality and friendliness. It is a youthful color which evokes energy. This fun loving color is perfect for the soda brand Fanta which aims to lure those with a sweet tooth.
- Red, the color of blood and romance, raises the energy level and stands for passion, excitement, anger and urgency. It is a powerful color that commands attention and works well in the entertainment industry as visible for the brands Netflix and YouTube.
- Purple is the color of royalty and signifies creativity and luxury. Brands such as Hallmark use this color to draw in customers who are looking for an experience that is a step away from the ordinary.
- Blue, the color of the ocean or clear sky conveys the feeling of calmness and strength and technological brands like Dell, IBM, Intel have successfully used its trustworthy aspect.
- Green is a peaceful color and conveys the idea of growth. Brands like Animal Planet, whose content or products deal with the environment utilize green.
- Black symbolizes power, professionalism and modernity whereas White represents clean, pure and simplicity. Together their combination makes for a timeless and classy logo. While for some brands like Nike the combination is used for an edgy vibe.
While perceptions of color are somewhat subjective, there are some color effects that have universal meaning and therefore choosing your branding colors is easy if you know what you’re trying to communicate.
While knowing the effects of colors on the human psyche is important it is not enough to come up with colors for your brand and therefore we have come up with a few tips for your brand to consider while choosing colors –
- The message your brand wants to convey has to be in alignment with the colors your brand is choosing. For instance- Retailers like Target use red as it gives energetic, youthful and loud personality to the brand and also creates a sense of urgency which may compel people to buy, especially when a sale is in its last hours.
- Knowing about the target market and to whom the services or products are being offered is important so that the color can match the kind of encouragement needed for the target customers.
- Consistency is important to win the branding game for your brand. Consistency in the color scheme reinforces the brand identity and helps in gaining trust, loyalty and familiarity of customers.
While it is important to note that colors evoke similar responses in people, there can be variations to these responses based on a person’s upbringing, personal preference and culture. Color means different things to people in different parts of the world. Therefore it is important to consider the demographics and psychographics that are dominating the target market for the choice of appropriate colors.
Break the Rules
When choosing colors for your brand, there are no hard and fast rules. And while it is important to keep in mind the emotions different colors evoke, it is equally important for a brand to be experimental to stand apart from its competitors. For instance Google uses a multicolor palette which successfully manages to depict its fun brand personality.
Ultimately, you need to understand not just your market and industry, but also your customers too, so that you can design the right impact for your brand. This is where a branding agency can help you to understand the needs of your customers better and improve your overall brand image.
