The effect that each color has on us depends mostly on personal experience and association an individual has about the color. We already know that colors symbolize different abstracts from culture to culture, but on top of that, there is a personal psychological level which is a non reliable factor when we’re choosing the brand color.
When we’re thinking about branding, there is so much to consider depending on the product we’re designing the brand for. True, a lot depends on the visual aspects of a brand, but we shouldn’t forget everything else in order to make a harmonic holistic approach to the brand personality. Things such as the certain smell we use for the shop, texture, patterns, customer service, music. So besides what the color represents, we should think about whether it fits what we sell and does it match everything else in the brand?
The role color holds in the brand identity is to make it easily recognizable, which is of great importance to the consumerist brain. Another thing to consider is which colors our biggest competitors use and how can we help the customers make an easy differentiation between the companies. Although, this is not always the right way to go when creating a brand. For example, both Twitter and Facebook use the color blue, and they are both social networks. The reason behind the color they chose is in fact very practical – since using these platforms requires spending time looking at the screen, they chose the color which is most comfortable to the eye so their users can spend more time on the network.
To think like successful brands, we need to think about our consumers, and not about the colors themselves. First we need to know what kind of emotions we want our customers to feel when using our product or service. What do we provide for them? Comfort, pleasure, confidence, excitement?
There are five dimensions of brand personality: blue for honest, welcoming, sentimental and friendly feeling; red for exciting, bold, creative and independent; green for reliable, successful, confident and smart; purple for elite, feminine, pretty and sophisticated; yellow for tough, outgoing, strong.
What do you want your customers to feel when they buy what you sell? Find the dominant emotion and focus your brand around it – think about practical factors and how to match every aspect of the brand with the color you choose.
About the author
Nina Petrov is an activist, poet, performer and mathematician. She communicates with the world mostly through words, movement and equations, but sometimes also by speaking very loudly. The only truth she could say about herself is that she keeps changing every day, never stops learning and interacting with her surroundings.
