When creating a brand image for your company, you can’t overlook the importance of color. That’s because people make subconscious judgments about people, places and things based on color information, and they don’t take very long to size you up. Most “first impressions” take fewer than two minutes to form!
Colors generally make a statement about a business, so it pays to spend a little time thinking about the colors you want to use in your branding. When choosing a color palette for your brand, think about not only what your brand is at the moment, but also where you want your brand to be in the future. Looking forward is important because the color you choose will likely be with your business for a long time!
Color reflects your brand’s personality. If you want to project a “calm, cool and collected” appearance, blue is your go-to color. On the other hand, if your brand appeals to the “fresh enthusiasm of youth,” you might want to go with green. Are you marketing a luxury product or high-end service? Try purple. Going for “bold?” Then go all-in with red.
Be careful to distinguish your brand from those of your competitors. If your main competition has already staked out blue, try something different to avoid becoming invisible or worse, confusing your customers! People make strong associations with a business based on color. Color is exceptionally important to consumers who are “scanning” while they look for their favorite brand. Color is also important because consumers don’t have to rely on words to determine that they’ve found what they’re looking for.
If you think this isn’t important, go to the grocery store and look for your favorite brand of anything. Once you’ve found it, look for the house brand or generic version of the same product and compare the packaging. More often than not, the store brand product will have packaging that is similar to the name brand it is trying to emulate. The store isn’t trying to fool you into thinking you’re buying the national brand product; instead, they’re making a statement that their generic brand is just as good as the more expensive national brand.
Don’t rely on a single color, though some brands do this very successfully. Instead, choose a main brand color, and then choose other complementary colors that can help distinguish your brand and enhance your brand statement.
If you don’t know where to start with color as part of your brand, contact Dave Ramsell, Creative Director at Grantstreet Creative for a color consultation on your brand. Grantstreet Creative can help you select a standard color palette for your brand, and work with you to develop standard usage guidelines.
Photo Credit: Caesantana, via StockXchng
