How to Choose the Best Color(s) for Your Brand

Your favorite fast food joint has red and yellow in their logo. Your insurance company has blue. And the place where you put gas in your car uses green. Each of them chose those colors for a specific reason.

Good companies take everything into account when they make up their brand. The words they use, their tone, their design and yes, their color(s), all are chosen for a reason. The last one plays a bigger part than you’d think; studies on the relationship between color and branding show that up to 90% of snap judgments made about products can be based on color alone.

So, how do you know which color(s) are best for your brand?

Color Psychology

The colors around us can influence how we act. If you’re feeling scared, you might react better to something that has blue. If you’re looking for a pick-me-up, you might feel better when surrounded by yellow.

Different colors tend to invoke different feelings:

Red

Danger, Passion, Excitement, Energy

Orange

Fresh, Youthful, Creative, Adventurous

Yellow

Optimistic, Cheerful, Playful, Happy

Green

Natural, Vitality, Prestige, Wealth

Blue

Communicative, Trustworthy, Calming, Depressed

Purple

Royalty, Majesty, Spiritual, Mysterious

Brown

Organic, Wholesome, Simple, Honest

Pink

Feminine, Sentimental, Romantic, Exciting

Black

Sophisticated, Formal, Luxurious, Sorrowful

White

Purity, Simplicity, Innocence, Minimalism

Now, take a second and think about the brands you use regularly. What feeling(s) are you searching for when you purchase these brands and what are they “telling” you?

So, how do you choose the best color(s) for your brand?

Ask yourself these questions:

• What message are you trying to send?
• What do you want customers to think of you?
• What feelings are you looking to draw from?
• What personality are you trying to show?
• What colors are your competitors using? How do you want your message to be different?

That last question might be tricky. You don’t want to knock off their brand, but some colors just fit certain industries better. Maybe you can use some different accent colors, or make their primary color your accent color. Just be careful that you don’t turn your brand into a box of crayons.

Aside from their logo, where do brands use these colors?

EVERYWHERE: websites, marketing collateral, within their locations, they even choose words in their ads to match up to the colors. All of this is strategically done so that no matter what medium they’re talking through, the feelings are the same.

Let’s pick your brand colors!

Are you ready to pick the right colors for your business? Contact us today, we can help you make sure that your brand is always sending the right message.