How to choose the right color for your brand

Convey the right message of your brand through a It is not an easy task. Forms, composition and typography play a decisive role in it. And also, importantly, color can tell things about our business. Colors in marketing help improve the understanding and reading of our brand, make it recognizable and can even influence the customer’s purchase judgments.

But how to choose the right color for your brand? To answer this question there is a particular field of study, known as the psychology of color. Ready to get into it?

What is color psychology and what role does it play in marketing

One of the best ways to reach consumers and a target audience is by trying to understand how they think. For this reason it is common for us to find some aspects or tools of psychology within marketing, this being the science that studies mental processes, perception, feeling and human behavior. Psychology has a wide variety of branches, among which we can find the behavioral psychologyto which color psychology belongs.

As its name indicates, the psychology of color presents a field of study, which is responsible for analyzing how people respond to different colors of the chromatic scale. That is, how consumers and users perceive colors, and how these can affect their behavior. Likewise, it explores the sensations or feelings that these can awaken in each person. Now how does this influence marketing?

As we have already mentioned, psychology is related to marketing, this from the point where the function of marketing is to understand the wishes and needs of consumers. integration of psychological tools, like this one, allow marketing to establish a more direct relationship with customer sensations. In addition, it opens a door for persuasion, since the use of certain colors will arouse a certain reaction in consumers. Through which, companies and brands can establish a stronger and more solid brand identity with respect to your area of ​​businessraising in the process the need to buy in the consumer or a sort of identification on their part with the brand.

What does each of the colors mean in marketing

Traditionally Colors have been classified as warm or cold according to the sensation of temperature they convey and the states they produce in our brain.

In this way, it is called colors warm to reds, yellows, oranges and certain types of greens. And colors cold to blues, violets, grays, blacks, and also certain shades of green and brown. The first ones are happy, intense tones, related to the summer months, the sun and the heat. The latter refer to low temperatures, ice, depth and the winter months.

This first psychological classification could help you a lot when it comes to filtering colors for your brand, so that they are consistent with its values. But also, Each color is associated with a certain symbology that gives it different meanings., always used in the field of design and creativity. We review some of these meanings and how they influence our sensations.

Blue

It is the color of the sea and the sky, and as such is associated with tranquility, stability or depth. It is also associated with seriousness, sincerity, cleanliness and health. Thus it is usually used to represent brands of cleaning and sanitary products. Also Car Brands (BMW, Ford, etc.), or financial entities (PayPal, American Express, BBVA) have resorted to blue for their brand image, based on the principle of security that this color awakens.

Following the previous line, it is not a surprise that it is a common color within the panorama of : LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Twitter, Skype; which need to project a space of trust.

Red

Red is energy, passion, strength, boldness and emotion. It is also the color of love and fire. It has traditionally been used to represent danger, for example on road signs.

It is also a color related to appetite, movement and tends to be the point of focus, which is why it is a very present color in fast food brands and mass consumption of food, such as: KFC, McDonald’s, Arby’s, CocaCola, Kellogg’s, Nestlé or RedBull. On the other hand, it is also recurrent within news or sports channels (BBC, ESPN, CNN) and other sectors of the entertainment (Netflix, Nintendo, Youtube).

Yellow

Yellow represents sunlight, so it is usual to see it as the color of some summer cosmetics. It also symbolizes energy and happiness, it is optimistic and self-confident. Some shades of yellow are used as a claim for attention, for example in New York taxis. classic brands like They have also been using it for many years.

Orange

Orange, being a mixture of red and yellow, also represents happiness, energy and the sun. It is usually used in healthy eating campaigns for young people, since it is a color that stimulates the brain and mental activity. Likewise, it usually represents the fun.

Although, a little distant from this, orange is also usually used for attract impulse buyersso it is not a surprise that it is part of the main colors of the eCommerce giants worldwide: Amazon and .

Green

Green is the color of nature, represents growth, earth and freshness. It is also harmony and relaxation, and in some context it can be associated with peace and hope, which is why we find it at: Holiday Inn, Animal Planet or Iberdrola. Likewise, it is common to find it in brands related to the food or supermarket sectorsuch as: El Corte Inglés, Starbucks, Leroy Merlin, Whole Foods, 7eleven, Sprite, Subway, Heineken, etc.

On the other hand, it is also associated with money and wealth, so we can see it in some banks and high cost brands.

Violet

The color violet and in general the different shades of purple are associated with nostalgia and imagination. However, it is also a color that historically and socially has been associated with wealth and power, becoming associated with extravagance and mystery. Likewise, within the psychology of color, it is estimated that purple is a color that awakens creativity and problem solving in the brain.

In this way, its relationship with a platform like Yahoo, focused on offering solutions and answers to its users. EITHER brands that focus their image on exclusivity and a kind of supremacy in their sectoras is the case with Cadbury and Milka in the chocolate shop.

White

White color is purity, light, innocence. It is considered the color of perfection, is associated with seriousness and generally has positive connotations. In the market it is usually associated, for example, with some brands of light productsas well as Cleaning products. It is also used in high tech products, for example: Apple or Sony.

Black

black is luxury, sophistication, seduction, formality and seriousness. For this reason, brands such as Chanel, Adidas, Nike or Swarovski have used it as a brand color. It is also the color of death and the unknown.

All these meanings can guide you in the search for a color for your brand. If you have a cleaning products company, it is more logical and effective to use ranges of green, blue or white, than black or red. On the contrary, if your brand is related to technology, perhaps black and white, as well as shades of gray, may be more effective than resorting to orange or yellow.

Color range combinations

Keep in mind that you can make color combinations. That is, associate two or more colors that can help you convey what you want. In these cases, perhaps You should be aware of two types of color mixes: harmonics and complementary color mixes.

The first are those that use similar colors, or different shades of the same color. The latter use complementary colors (those that appear opposite each other on the color wheel) to generate vibrant, more striking and energetic compositions.

we leave you two examples of it. Two brands that use different color ranges to reach a similar audience: fantasy as an example of contrasting color combinations, and Airing as a sample of the harmonic use of blues.

Therefore, to find the right brand image, you must be clear about your brand values and the target audience you are addressing, and based on this, make a studied selection of fonts and colors that provide data about your business at first glance.

And you, do you already know what the color for your brand will be?

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