The Role of Color in Branding

Use Color Psychology to Make Everyone Love You-Updated

Whether you realize it or not, colors have a lot of power. Everyone has a favorite color, but certain colors elicit similar responses in us all. Across the globe, different cultures associate specific colors with death, luck, or innocence. Colors hold significance and meaning for most people.

Sir Isaac Newton is credited with identifying the seven major shades that make up the color spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. However, the study of color psychology dates back to ancient Egyptians, Roman, Greek, and Chinese periods. Color has always been a point of interest for scholars. And nowadays, it's a significant factor in selling to consumers.

What Is Color Psychology?

Color psychology is the study of color hues on human behavior. Colors can subconsciously influence factors in us that we're not even aware of, such as hunger or emotion. In recent decades, color psychology has played a massive role in marketing and advertising. Companies spend a lot of effort in choosing the colors that will represent their brand, to invoke the correct feelings from their audience.

Keep reading for a complete breakdown of the color emotion guide, so you know how to choose the right colors for your company.

Red

Red is a popular color with food brands. First, red is associated with juicy fruit or vegetables that are ripe to eat. And, red is correlated with the freshness of meat. As a result, red is ingrained in us to be associated with food.

Additionally, striking red hues align with the vigor of youth. This is why you will see brands that appeal to younger audiences, like Coca-Cola, Redbull, and McDonald's, using red.

Lastly, red is also affiliated with intensity. That is why discounted items are often marked in red, to grab your attention and make you feel a sense of urgency.

The body has a physical reaction to seeing the color red. We feel stimulated, excited, and passionate, often experiencing an increase in heart rate and blood pressure. Use red in your branding when you want to draw people to action, feel motivated or feel hungry.

Orange

Orange is a positive color that evokes feelings of optimism, friendliness, and cheerfulness. When people see orange, they feel energized and rejuvenated. As a result, many youth-aligned brands choose orange, which fits with the spirit of their target audience. Some popular examples of these brands include SoundCloud, Nickelodeon and Fanta.

Interestingly, orange is also associated with affordability and confidence. This is why many financial and credit institutions, such as Tangerine and MasterCard, choose orange. Additionally, major retailers such as Amazon and Payless use the orange branding philosophy.

You can consider orange when you want to inspire feelings of happiness or confidence or if your brand targets individuals 25 or younger. Orange is often paired with white detailing to avoid overpowering viewers.

Yellow

Yellow is a happy color that defies people to be unhappy. Most people associate yellow with sunny days, big sunflowers, and bright lemons. Yellow represents optimism, warmth and clarity.

Use this color to grab attention, inspire boldness, and spur joy. Let's walk through how three influential brands use yellow in their branding.

McDonald's is world-renowned for its "golden arches." These arches would perhaps not be as impactful if they weren't cleverly paired with the red background. The yellow grabs our attention, while the bright red evokes hunger and urgency to grab some fast food right now.

The social media platform Snapchat uses its iconic deep yellow for all of its branding. This yellow stands out from the other colors on popular social media platforms and evokes feelings of trust and happiness. Snapchat's yellow is all about connecting you with your friends, a joyful experience.

Ikea has two brand colors: yellow paired with a deep blue. Yellow is often associated with a discounted price tag. So, when Ikea displays its signage throughout the store in yellow, it gives us the subconscious feeling that everything is heavily discounted. This is an apt choice for a brand that builds it's messaging around low prices.

Use yellow in your advertising if your brand is overall positive or you offer a lot of discount merchandise.

Green

Of all the colors on this list, green is perhaps the most complex color. On the one hand, green is associated with health, wellness, and peacefulness. On the other hand, green is also the color of power, money, and growth. Some people may think the two shouldn't be intertwined, but many famous brands have melded the two concepts perfectly.

Whole Foods is known for its deep green signage. The chain of natural-foods stores sells expensive to produce and other items and has locations across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Despite its dominance and success, most people have a positive perception of the brand, and do not associate it with greed or "big corporations."

Starbucks is another similar example. Starbucks has chains around the world that produce plastic cups that go straight to the landfill. And yet, they're great at spinning themselves as "eco-friendly" with fairtrade coffee and cups made up of recycled material. As a result, people love Starbucks and don't have negative feelings towards it, despite its enormous success and high prices.

You should consider using green in your advertising if your product or service aligns with wealth or health. Want to make people feel healthier or more prosperous? Green branding will make that happen.

Blue

Blue is one of the most popular color choices for businesses. It's the color of trust, dependability, and strength.

Blue is another color that is often chosen by financial and credit institutions. Some examples include PayPal, Visa, American Express, Bank of America, and Venmo. These organizations need their customers to trust them with their finances and money, so it's no surprise blue is such a popular choice.

Technology and social platforms that use this trust-inspiring hue include Anura.io, IBM, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wordpress, Dropbox, Skype, Zoom, Samsung, and AT&T. Tech and communication companies can't succeed without the trust of their customers, so blue helps to instill that feeling with bold blue logos.

Use blue if an essential aspect of your business is the customer's trust in you. This applies to financial institutions, social media platforms, communication tools, technology, and education.

The End of the Rainbow

We've reached the end of the rainbow, but other colors deserve honorable mentions, such as:

Pink

What is the color is love? The answer is light pink. Different shades of pink can represent sweetness or sexuality. Some famous brands that use pink include Victoria's Secret, Cosmopolitan and Dunkin Donuts.

Purple

Purple symbolizes royalty, intelligence, and status. Often, purple is used to sell expensive, luxurious, or decadent products. Many chocolate brands, such as Cadbury, Purdy's and Milka, use purple.

White

White signifies trust, innocence, and cleanliness. However, brands can't use just white, as it doesn't stand out on its own. For example, Mr.Clean, the cleaning product brand, does have a lot of white in its branding. But, Mr.Clean adds in other colors, such as red, to balance out the white and make the logo more eye-catching.

The hues of colors, their pairings, and the color choices themselves all play a tremendous rule in marketing. The colors you choose for your brand will speak to your customer before any other messaging does. You want to do your research on colors that make you happy, hungry, passionate, or incentivized.

First, understand how you want your customers to feel when they see your brand, then choose the color that matches that feeling. It can be a fun challenge finding the right color, but once you figure it out, it will be something to be proud of.