21st April 2020
“Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions.”
Pablo Picasso
It is no news that human beings are visual creatures who get attracted to anything that represents beauty, relevance, and explicitness. So visual, in fact, that color has become an integral part of our daily lives. It influences our decisions, our moods, our perspectives, and our emotions.
Many big shot organizations spend vast amounts of money testing the colors of their marketing and branding tools such as advertisements, banner ads, creative logo designs, and call-to-action (CTA) buttons for a single reason: to target the color psychology.
A shining example of such tests is when HubSpot conducted a color test for their CTA button. They observed a 21% increase in conversion rate by merely picking the color red over the color green.
Color is undoubtedly a persuasive communication and marketing and branding tool that can be utilized effectively to direct action, evokeemotion, and even stimuli physical responses. Many artists and interior designers also believe that color radically affects moods, emotions, and feelings.
Color is possibly the most effective subconscious marketing and branding technique, when used appropriately, can drastically increase brand interaction and engagement.
So how exactly does color psychology work? How does it impact mood and behavior? Let’s find out!
Regardless of the prevalence of color, color psychology is, unfortunately, not a well-developed area. With little theoretical or empirical work driven mostly by practical concerns instead of scientific rigor, color psychology has not received its due attention in the scientific world.
But, regardless of the general lack of research in this area, the concept of color psychology has managed to become a hot topic in marketing, branding, art, design, and other creativedomains.
To understand the impact of color psychology in marketing and branding, we must first understand color psychology.
Color psychology can be defined as,
“The study of colors and hues as a determinant of human behavior.”
As per color psychology, colorhas a strong influence on our perceptions that are not necessarily obvious. The most prominent example can be the taste of food.
The biggest reason why color has such a strong influence on our perceptions and behavior is because our feelings about colors are often deeply personal and rooted in our own experiences.
While white denotes purity in the Western countries, it is a symbol of mourning in the Eastern countries. These differences that arise due to cultures, ethnicity, geographical locations, and even gender, not only influences but biases the color perception drastically.
Color perceptions are somewhat subjective. But it is important to remember thatsome colors do have a universal meaning.
Color associations differ depending on the different factors mentioned above. However, as per research , color preference is relatively uniform when it comes to gender and race.
These exceptional benefits that come along color psychology are the reason why it is widely used in marketing and branding strategies. Smart marketers see color as an opportunity to bring more customers in by targeting consumers’ emotions and perceptions about products and services.
In wide-ranging marketing and branding strategies, color is most influential in creative logo designs and website design for companies.
Why?Logos and websitesattract more customers!
However, creating a compellingly creative logo and website design is only possible when the audience believes that it aligns with the brand’s personality and image. While brand image and brand personality is essential, creating brand harmony by choosing the right colors can also play a significant role in compelling and captivating potential audiences.
So what exactly are the right colors, and how do you find ones that fit perfectly with your brand? By simply applying the basics of color theory in the marketing world.
Dating back to 1666, Isaac Newton found that pure white light isolates into various visible colors when it passes through a prism. Further experiments exhibited that light could be combined to form different colors and hues. For instance, red light mixed with yellow light creates an orange color. However, there are some colors like green and magenta that counteract other out upon mixing and result in a white light.
This is where the color theory comes to light. Most of us grew up learning about how blue and yellow combined makes green while mixing red with blue makes magenta. Similarly, many other combinations birthed simply by mixing up the primary colors (blue, red, and yellow).
In an age of intense competition, the most effective non-verbal attention grabber, color, is more crucial than ever for marketing and branding strategies.
The best marketers in the industry understand how to use color theory to their advantage. It has been established that human buying decisions are a result of apparent desires and needs, but subconscious preferences also play their part in influencing decisions.
Visual aids can push a person towards making a purchase that they otherwise would not buy. Beauty and organization are what attract the human mind, and that is precisely what a marketer targets in marketing and branding tactics.
The Institute of Color Research found that consumers tend to make snap judgments in no less than 90 seconds, and about 90% of said judgment is influenced by colors alone.
Color intuitively depicts a brand’s character, identity, and message. Besides using compelling colors in a creative logo design, it is essential to use a consistent and persuasive color scheme throughout all marketing and branding strategies of an organization.
Always remember, you want to keep your color scheme simple and relevant.
A study by the University of Toronto indicated that two out of three individuals favored simple color combinations that relied on no more than two or three colors. This study serves as a strong proving point that it is crucial and smart to avoid complicating your color scheme by adding too many hues and shades.
Therefore, the bottom line is: use the right colors in marketing and branding, and you win.
Color theory is not only the science but the art of using color as well.
For successful marketing and branding, understanding color theory is essential because it explains how humans perceive color and educates on the visual effects of how colors mix and contrast with each other.
In its crux, color theory communicates the techniques used to bring color to light.
In color theory, colors are arranged on a color wheel and grouped into 3 categories ofprimary colors(red, yellow, blue), secondary colors(colors created when primary colors are mixed: green, orange, purple, etc.),and tertiary colors(colors made from primary and secondary colors, such as blue-green or red-violet, etc.).
By drawing a line right through the center of the color wheel, you will isolate the warm colors (reds, oranges, and yellows) from cool colors (blues, greens, and purples).
Cool colors are frequently branded with calm, peace, and serenity; on the other hand, warm colors are commonly linked with energy, brightness, and action.
Recognizing that color has a temperature can help you understand whether choosing warm or cool colors in your marketing and branding strategies like your creative logo designer on your website can prove to be beneficial in conveying your message effectively.
In simple words, tints, tones, and shades are different variations of hues on the color wheel. Here is how it goes:
Using the color wheel, designers, marketers, and artists develop a color scheme tailored as per the needs of the marketing and branding strategies for different marketing materials.
The color schemes can be chosen from complementary colors, analogous colors, or triadic colors.
The opposites on the color wheel like orange and blue as the image shows are complementary colors.
Due to a sharp contrast between the two opposing colors, their usage can make imagery pop, and exhibit a vibrant and lively appeal. However, overusing them can get tiresome and fatal to your marketing and branding strategies in some cases.
You can use complementary colors to make your brand stand out. But remember to use them with caution to keep your content from being too visually jarring and stressful for the eyes.
Colors that are found next to each other on the color wheel like purple, blue, and a lighter hue of blue, as shown in the image, are called analogous colors.
In an analogous color scheme, one color always dominates, one acts as a support for the dominant color, and the third one accents.
Analogous color schemes are visually pleasing and can capably direct the consumer where and how to take the desired action.
Triadic colors are equally spread out around the color wheel and have a tendency to be very dynamic and energetic, making each item stand out.
If you want to create visual harmony and contrast, we suggest you opt for a triadic color scheme in your marketing and branding tools.
Burger King uses the triadic color scheme quite successfully.
Having discussed the fundamentals, let’s now discuss how different colors impact the human mind and how they can be best used for optimal results.
Red is globally known to be color that depicts power, boldness, and passion. We often see red being used in store sales and food businesses because it stimulates action, energy, and hunger.
The color orange fuels motivation, friendliness, quirkiness, and confidence. It is frequently used on brands that want to depict energy, happiness, and vitality.
Yellowis the color of happiness, joy, and sunshine. It is most commonly used in store windows to attract consumers, activate memory, and depict a feeling of hope and happiness.
Green is associated with nature, environment, and wholesome organic products. It exudes a sense of well-being, new beginnings, abundance,peace, growth, and relaxation.
Blue is used extensively to portray calmness,reliability, dependability, and responsibility. Lighter shades of bluecan be refreshing and friendly, while dark blues are more vigorous and reliable.
Blue is often used in the banking and financial industry because it radiates trusting vibes.
If you want to portray uplifting and creative vibe, the color purple is your best option.
Dark purple evokes feelings of mystery, magic, and a sense of wealth and luxury. Whereas, light purples are softer and are thus associated with spring and romance. Beauty packaging is widely painted in purple for its enigmatic and dreamlike effect.
If you are looking to illustrate fragility, sweetness, playfulness, feminine, and tenderness, use hues of pink. The color pink is most recurrently used in marketing and branding towards women and girls due to itssoft and compassionate affect.
Brown is the color of earth, wholesomeness, reliability, elegance, security, healing, stability, warmth, and honesty. It is a natural and neutral color that typically used in the corporate world.
Gold is generally associated with illumination, compassion, courage, and wisdom. Use the color Gold if you want to depict wealth, grandeur, and prosperity, as well as glitz and glamour.
The color black portrays a sense of mystery, seriousness, and power. Black is most commonly used in themarketing and branding of luxury brands because it instills contrast and sleekness.
The color of purity, cleanliness, and innocence, white is simple and fresh. Most commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry, white is a color of clarity and immaculateness.
You cannot mix up a color scheme because you like it, and expect it to work. The first step is knowing your audience, their needs, behaviors, perceptions, and their preferences.
Without cumulating the crucial information about your audience, you can never put color psychology to a productive use in your marketing and branding strategies.
A brand should know what they want their audience to feeland experience through their brand when deciding on a color scheme for their creative logo and branding services.
Have something to add to color psychology and its application in branding? Let us know in the comments below.
