The business landscape is growing increasingly competitive, no matter your industry. Developing a brand people know, and trust takes time and skill. One way modern businesses capture a place in the market is through color psychology.
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Color psychology can be applied in many ways, including products themselves, packaging, and logos. Logos are an especially powerful tool in color psychology as they are consistent in representing your brand.
Throughout this blog, you’ll learn more about color psychology and how to use it in your business to get ahead and reach your target audience.
What is Color Psychology?
The big question every business owner asks is, “What is color psychology?” Simply put, this is the practice of using color to impact human emotion and behavior. Every color has unique qualities influencing connections and psychology.
A 2022 publication in The Journal of Linguistics and Culture Review, found that color psychology directly impacts a consumer’s opinion of brand personality. According to Review 42, up to 90% of every first impression is influenced by color psychology. These findings aren’t surprising when we consider the way modern businesses choose logo colors.
Color psychology in marketing also has the chance to highlight stereotypical color associations. Like gender-specific colors. This can negatively impact a brand’s personality which is why it’s so important to consider social and cultural differences as you choose your brand colors.
Use Color Psychology to Build a Following
One reason to use color psychology in business is to build a following with your target audience. A prime example of color psychology at work is a look at nearly any successful fast food chain.
McDonald’s, Wendy’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Chick-fil-A, Burger King, and others use red, yellow, and/or orange in their logos. Delish Magazine says these colors conjure thoughts of mustard and ketchup. In other words, these colors make us hungry.
These companies built their followings through good branding and consistent products. Colors encourage customers to choose the brands they do based on the emotions logos and ads evoke.
Enhance Brand Recognition with Colors
Colors not only encourage customers to choose your brand, but they also create memorable bonds with your target audience. Choosing brand colors that represent your industry, services, products, and ideals helps consumers associate you with your color scheme.
These associations are useful. For example, a health and wellness company using a green logo might be associated with freshness, nature, and youth. A dentistry clinic with blue signage calms patients and fosters feelings of trust. An art brand like Dare2Wear can use different splashes of color to show their support to different mental health improvement goals. This is all part of marketing color psychology.
Associating these businesses with the emotions their color choices induce puts them in a positive light. These are precisely the emotions you’d want your customers to be feeling. It helps them connect your brand to your industry and makes you stand out against competitors.
Put Color Psychology to Work: Which Colors Do What?
We touched on one of the ways colors work to increase consumer appeal with the mustard and ketchup effect. Along with creating physical sensations like hunger, colors influence emotion when chosen from the color psychology chart.
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Bright colors like yellow, orange, and red are considered warm. Purple, green, and blue, on the other hand, are considered cool.
Warm colors are comforting but can also make us agitated or angry. Cool colors are calming but can evoke sadness. Here, we’ll break down each color and how they impact us.
Red
Red is a color of energy, power, and passion. We know some restaurants use red to make us crave food. Red is also used to represent danger, alerting us to stop on the road, for example.
Red is a popular color for businesses such as:
- Restaurants
- Vehicles
- Travel
- Clothing
- Electronics
- Medicine
Red in brand colors is an attention grabber. It’s best used to highlight important parts of a message or enhance a brand’s personality. A good example of red for brand colors is Coca-Cola. It’s a classic for a reason.
Orange
Orange is another energetic color. It’s bright and invigorating, conjuring feelings of happiness. Orange is often used in youthful, modern marketing campaigns.
Orange works well for industries including:
- Credit cards and banking
- Children’s products
- Television stations
- Soda
- Motorcycles
- Shoes
Orange is a color of spontaneity and dynamic thinking.
Yellow
Another youthful color is yellow. Bright and cheery, yellow is full of optimism and draws the eye. Some of the most famous brands boasting yellow logos include Nikon, Best Buy, Sprint, and Sonic.
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Yellow is a great fit for companies in fields such as:
- Food
- Office Supplies
- Furniture
- Mobile Technology
- Construction
Yellow is an invigorating color, but it’s also a color of caution and fear. It’s a good choice for warning signs or highlighted passages.
Green
Green is earthy, natural, and fresh. It also encourages feelings of trust, honesty, and security. Perhaps it’s the connection between green and money, but green is also associated with wealth and luck.
Some of the top industries where green is used include:
- Banking
- Coffee
- Furniture
- Footwear
- Outdoor gear
- Gardening supplies
Green adds an element of nature to your business. In a world where sustainability has become so imperative, this is a good color to increase brand recognition and loyalty.
Blue
Blue is analytical. It’s above us in the sky and all around us in the oceans and seas. Most experts believe blue is calming, but it also denotes a level of professionalism.
Blue is useful in businesses within the following industries:
- Pharmaceuticals
- Education
- Government
- Medicine
- Dentistry
- Law
- Technology
Shades of blue summon feelings of trust and proficiency.
Pink
Pink is sometimes left out of the traditional color wheel, but it’s a powerful color. Pink is soft and romantic, it’s also playful and young. Pink is a useful color in fields like:
- Restaurants
- Technology
- Beauty
- Clothing
- Pharmaceuticals
Pink is a diverse color. It’s represented in medical brands like Pepto Bismol and Johnson and Johnson. It’s also a big player in the tech field, with brands like T-Mobile and XD.
Purple
Luxury and royalty are two things often associated with purple. It’s a glamorous whimsical color, perfect to represent wealth, spirituality, and nostalgia.
Some industries featuring purple include:
- Greeting cards
- Art
- Clothing
- Jewelry
- Beauty
Purple is rich and mysterious. It’s a great color for luxury brands hoping to stand out as high-quality investments for their clients. It’s a prominent color on the color psychology chart.
The Importance of Developing a Unique Brand’s Color Palette
Colors have long-standing meanings, but that doesn’t mean your branding will be boring or predictable. A unique color scheme creates dynamic and engaging ads and logos. Look at major companies like Google. They use red, yellow, green, and blue to send a bright and exciting message.
Carefully selecting a color scheme based on color psychology for your brand identity ensures your business is dynamic and engaging as well. Some things to consider as you choose a color psychology palette include your:
- Industry
- Company culture
- Target audience
- Overall message
Primary and Secondary Colors
Start with one color. This is the primary color in your logo or signage and this color is a trademark. It’s the color your customers will know you by. Think about the unique tell-tale shade of Tiffany’s box. That Robin egg blue is recognizable a mile away.
Next, choose a secondary color. This color works with your primary color to tell your brand story or make an impact. There are several options here, including monochromatic, complimentary, or analogous color schemes.
- Monochromatic brand colors are all from the same color theory base. For example, if you’re trying to create color combinations for luxury brands, you might use different shades of purple in your brand colors. A monochromatic color scheme is soothing and cohesive.
- Complimentary colors are opposing colors on the color spectrum. For example, yellow and purple, blue and orange, and red and green. Complimentary colors are impactful and eye-catching in color theory.
- Analogous colors are a collection of colors within the same family. Orange, red, and yellow for example form an analogous group of brand colors. This is a good way to branch out in color psychology use, without risking clashing colors. It offers a little brand personality.
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Creating a Logo Through Color Psychology
Designing a logo for a small business owner is like choosing a color psychology palette. It has the potential to drastically influence your customers. Putting these two tasks together feels even more daunting. This is where BrandCrowd’s logo-making platform comes in handy.
Templates and pre-paired color psychology palettes make it simple to develop a logo without breaking the bank or wracking your brain. Leave the stress at the door and let the logo maker and color psychology build a logo worth having.
A company’s logo says a lot about them, including their branding and marketing strategy. It’s the calling card that helps customers form an attachment and recall products and services. Color psychology makes it easier than ever before to develop a logo that works on multiple levels.
Choose colors for your logo that help customers emotionally react to your brand identity in a way that influences sales. You might be surprised at what a difference color-coding your logo can make.
Wrapping Up Color Psychology
Throughout this blog, we’ve talked about the power of color psychology on emotions. This is a fascinating and useful topic for business owners looking to make a statement and build a brand personality.
Sharing this information with you, we touched on topics including:
- How to build a following with color psychology
- Ways to encourage brand recognition
- The use and characteristics of different colors
- How to create a unique color palette
- The impact of color psychology on logos
Hopefully, this blog has offered some insight into what color psychology is and how to use it to brand your business. As you develop your own logos, social media posts, email signatures, and website headers, think about the colors you’ve chosen and why.
Color is a powerful tool and, when used correctly, can influence consumers into choosing your brand over another.
Whether you go with cool colors or warm ones, calming tones or invigorating ones, we wish you luck.
Happy color-coding!
BYLINE:
Ron Stefanski is a website entrepreneur and marketing professor who has a passion for helping people create and market their own online business. You can learn more from him by visiting OneHourProfessor.com
You can also connect with him on YouTube or Linkedin.
Written by DesignCrowd on Tuesday, May 2, 2023
DesignCrowd is an online marketplace providing logo, website, print and graphic design services by providing access to freelance graphic designers and design studios around the world.