Has it ever crossed your mind as to why a certain company’s logo is colored that way?
or why does Coca Cola use red so prominently in their logos and products? Is it because they randomly picked the color red for their brand? Or Is it based on a certain market research of colors and what they signify? Does color marketing really exist?.
Well to answer that last question, Yes! color marketing indeed is a relevant concept and brands practice it extensively to achieve their respective goals. Colors are a great way of highlighting your special features or attracting people towards your brand or in some cases to create a sense of urgency to act ( think of the red boards outside shops with “clearance sale” banner).
Try answering the following questions and you might get a better idea on the importance of colors in marketing.
Scenarios
Which color are you likely to use for the merchandise and jackets if you are starting cruiser bike group?
What colors would you prefer to use for a science project on environmental conservation?
What colors would you use to paint your kid’s play area in school or at home?
In the first case, you’re are most likely to go with some dark and sober colors which will reflect something serious and classic (think Harley).
Next one being an environmental project, you’re might go with colors that reflect nature i.e. green and brown.
In the third case, you might prefer going with playful and bright colors like yellow, pink, sky blue.
Target audience, relevance, and requirements were the reason for the color choices in the above cases.
It’s very important to choose the colors based on the situation and the kind of image you want to exhibit. Colors play a very important role in creating a connect and help your customers in having a positive impression of your brand. You would not want kids toys business to have black and maroon as the colors of your brand. Also, it would not ideally be perfect to have gray or white as the logo colors for an amusement park.
Color Symbolism
Every color signifies a certain feeling. When we think of a certain color, we immediately come up with a word that would define it the best as per our psyche. White stands for peace, Red for danger and so on.
Historically, certain colors are used for signifying a specific emotion or purpose. The emotion associated with a color may also differ based on the geographical, psychological and religious factors. For example, green is almost a forbidden color in Indonesia but is the national color of Mexico and is highly revered. Similarly, red is the symbol of purity and of great religious importance in India but is a symbol of aggression and brutality in Nigeria.
Based on above examples, it becomes very important for a business to have universally accepted colors if they want to expand. For multinational corporations, it is a daunting task to decide on a color as that would be reflecting their brand image.
Color Psychology
The effect of color on our mood and behavior has been a subject of various studies. You all must have come across the news of how Glasgow’s blue color streetlight helped in reduction of crime and suicide rates. Apparently, the color blue has a soothing effect on our brain and helps us relax.
A study was done during the 2004 Olympics where players from taekwondo, boxing, wrestling were observed. It was found that the players in the red attires had a better success ratio of 60-40 over their blue counterparts. Point to be noted here is that the study was carried out only where the opponents were evenly matched. Not taking anything away from the sportsperson’s ability, this could be a result of red being a dominating color and creating a certain psychological impact on the opponents.
Our brain relates each color with a certain feeling. This can be best demonstrated using the example of traffic lights. Red stops the traffic and green allows the traffic to pass by for a reason. This is so because of years of conditioning our brain has undergone and what we feel about those particular colors. Tomorrow if a new rule comes up about reversing or changing the colors of the traffic light, it might result in utter chaos.
Brands and Their Colors
Today when we hear about any big brand, immediately a color would crop up. We would associate gray and black with apple, yellow and red with McDonald’s, red, blue and yellow with Red Bull.
As mentioned earlier, is it because the founders of these company used these companies simply because they liked these colors? or is there a deeper meaning. Let us try and understand what some of the colors mean in the world of brands.
Black & Grey– A symbol of sophistication, class, and elegance, Black is often the favorite colors of luxury brands and brands who want to go with sober and classy look for their logo.
One of the best examples of color marketing
Color of the logo symbolizes the simplicity of their design. Color marketing through logos.
One of the best example of luxury brands using sober colors.
White – White can best be described as the absence of color. Just like black, it can also be used to signify something elegant. If you want your brand to have a minimal approach yet be straight to the point with the logo, white is your color.
Red – A color that signifies youthfulness and excitement, Red is a particular favorite with companies going for aggressive marketing and food industry, in particular, prefers to use a dash of it.
Green – A symbol of nature and purity, green is also associated with money. A perfect color for companies going for natural appeal, energy conservation, and financial services.
Yellow – A color that represents fun and joy, yellow is perfect for your company if you want to attract some attention or get the younger crowd going. It’s another major favorite with the food giants across the world.
Blue – A color that infuses certain calmness and trust, blue is a big favorite with the big tech players and financial institutions and also some fashion brands.
Importance of Colors in Brand Image
Although in most of the cases we can say that colors play an important role in defining the brand, there is no hard and fast rule that a brand belonging to a certain category or philosophy must use pre determined particular colors. There are a number of companies that have defied all the “rules” and gone against it. Starbucks is the best example of this concept, its logos and merchandise are dominated with green despite belonging to food and beverage industry. Something that we don’t usually see with the brands of this category.
Another aspect that we must understand is that brands colors have been through years of evolution. They have existed for longer than we could imagine. That’s the reason we associate a certain color with the brand. There is no compulsion that your brand would be successful by splashing red on the logo as the other brand did the same. As mentioned above, a logo is just the face of the business. How we use the face is what decides the outcome.
Perception of Colors
Today what we feel about a color has entirely got to do with our experiences and cultural background. Hence it becomes very crucial for a brand to cater to the user personas and have a brand image and logo that will have an appeal among the customers.
It becomes very important to know the people you are trying to woo towards your brand. According to a survey by Joe Hallock, a majority of men responded with blue followed by green as their favorite colors and women preferred blue followed by purple as their favorite colors. Surprisingly, orange and brown were the least favorite colors for both men and women. Such surveys help us to understand the tastes and preferences of our target audience and in designing our logos better.
The Debate of Pink and Blue
Another example of color marketing influencing our decisions is the concept of pink is for girls and blue is for boys. According to Jo B. Paoletti, the author of Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls from the Boys in America and an eminent historian, the concept of gender specific colors came up in only during the last 6 decades or so. Baby clothing earlier just used to be white as it was easy to bleach. Gradually, marketers started making color specific clothing, toys and merchandise to maximize their sales and slowly the trend caught on. Aisles in the stores across the world have gender specific colors. The buyers hence are influenced into buying what the stores want. This is a regular practice despite a great furore.
Color Marketing in Digital Space
Not just in the real world, color marketing is playing a pivotal role in digital space as well. The themes and color tones of the websites are undergoing great changes. This is providing overall great visual experience to the user.
There have also been cases where the change in the color patterns resulted in better results. It has helped companies to gain more user engagement and product purchases. A lot of research is going into choosing the color patterns of the website logos and call to action buttons.
The correct color contrast and choice of colors on the website as well as call to action buttons help a lot. They are extremely crucial in creating a soothing experience for the users and highlighting your special features. This in turns prompts the user to give you favorable results. A lot of websites have tried changing the color of call to action buttons to great success.
Is Color Marketing Everything
Color marketing has become such a huge phenomenon for the brands today. Companies today are investing a fortune into branding and colors. However, it’s not just the effect of colors or the logo designs. It’s your brand image that plays a crucial role in establishing trust. A customer won’t just go to McDonalds because it has used bright and attractive colors in their logo. The trust factor associated with the brand makes the customer visit the place. Similarly, people would continue using Google even if it changes it’s multi color logo (signifying diversity) to plain black. Brands like Victoria’s Secret, Reebok etc. are constantly testing and changing their logo colors. There has been no dip in profits here and that’s because of the connect and the consumer base they have already created. So answering the above question, No! color marketing has become integral to marketing today but it is just a fraction to the whole concept of marketing.