When someone encounters your brand — logo, images, website — it takes fewer than 15 seconds for that someone to form a first impression.
Does the colour of an icon, item, or logo make us more willing to click? The short answer is yes.
Choosing colours goes a lot further than just being “pretty.” Your brand’s colour palette is one of the most important aspects of positioning your brand in the mind of your customer. Colours evoke feelings and emotions by triggering different psychological responses.
How do you want your visitors to feel when they discover your company? When you choose the right colours to align with your brand’s culture, you have a better chance of connecting with your audience and introducing them to your products or services.
Understanding the psychology of brand management can make the difference between your brand standing out from the crowd or just blending in.
Did you know that certain colours evoke specific emotional responses? Ideally, you want to choose colours with meanings that correlate with your company’s personality and culture. So if you don’t already have colours picked out, or you’re considering a rebrand, the first step is to decide how you want to be perceived in the mind of your target customer. You need to keep these key things in mind:
Once your brand culture is recognized by customers in your industry, and you have agreed on the emotional and psychological route, it’s time to select colours to represent it. Let’s explore the colour spectrum to discover the meaning and impact of colours:
RED:
Red is a powerful, dangerous, and energetic colour. You might think of red as an action-packed colour with lots of excitement. Red often encourages appetite, so we recommend using it if you’re in the food industry. It’s also commonly used for sale signs because it represents the excitement and energy that comes with getting a great deal.
Significant brands: Coca-Cola, Netflix, Target
ORANGE:
Orange is a cheerful, confident, and optimistic colour. It represents creativity, balance, adventure, and enthusiasm. Orange often shows up in caution signs as it promotes alertness in brands but has also been known to appear in home building companies or do-it-yourself campaigns. It also brings a feeling of warmth that brands can use effectively to entice customers.
Significant brands: Amazon, Nickelodeon, BeResponsive Media
YELLOW:
The colour meaning for yellow often aligns with sunshine. Being a bright, happy, and positive colour, yellow promotes feelings of optimism and delightedness. A brand with yellow in their palette helps customers associate that brand with positivity.
Significant brands: McDonald’s, Best Buy, IKEA
PINK:
Pink is a popular colour for female-oriented brands and often revolves around playfulness, love, and kindness. It’s generally considered a feminine colour and is often found on girls’ toys and products aimed at women consumers.
Significant brands: Victoria’s Secret, Barbie, Cosmopolitan
GREEN:
Green is a relaxing colour often associated with growth, tranquillity, and nature, but can also represent money. We often see green used by landscaping or agriculture companies, organic health products, or banks.
Significant brands: Starbucks, Animal Planet, TD Bank
BLUE:
Blue has a very calm aura and brings feelings of trust, loyalty, dependability, logic, and security. Because many brands want to capture these positive feelings, blue is relatively popular. Brands with blue in their palette often represent confidence, safety, and respect. Being the colour of the sky and the clouds, the colour blue brings a light and airy feeling associated with harmony and peace.
Significant brands: Facebook, Walmart, OREO
PURPLE:
Purple is known for representing superiority and royal characteristics. It can bring feelings of wisdom, wealth, spirituality, and creativity. Companies that use purple often claim to be understanding and sensitive, as well as educated and dignified.
Significant brands: Cadbury, Yahoo, Nivea
GREY:
Grey symbolizes feelings of practicality, timeliness, and neutrality. Though it has some positive associations, it can also point to feelings of loss, despair, and sadness. However, some brands use grey to represent themselves as it’s known to be a clean, mature, and neutral look.
Significant brands: Zara, Apple, Grey Goose
BLACK:
Black is associated with authority, power, and strength. This is an accent colour for many existing brands because it goes with every other colour, but if you use it too much, it can be overwhelming. In the right doses, black represents confidence, stability, and sophistication.
Significant brands: Nike, Ralph Lauren, Chanel
BeResponsive Media specializes in digital marketing strategies and honing your brand’s first impression so you can win online. We help you brand your business, so your FIRST impression hits the mark — and stays there!