How Different Color Meanings Affect Your Brand Marketing
The colors of your brand can say a lot about you. Known as color psychology, specific colors can impact people’s behavior and perception, making them a powerful tool in marketing.
Whether you’ve decided to start your own business, or are launching a game-changing new startup, or just rebranding your business, understanding the impact of color on customer behavior will help your brand be successful.
Our social media experts at Social Stamina are here to dive into the meaning behind each color and how it can impact your branding.
Red
Used in big-name companies like Target, Coca-Cola, LEGO, and Netflix, red is a color that often correlates with being energetic, courageous, bold, and visceral.
Red also stimulates appetite and the pituitary gland of your brain, which is responsible for most of the hormones in your body. This explains why many food manufacturers (Kellogg’s, Frito Lay, Dairy Queen) use red in their logos – they are subconsciously increasing your hunger for their products! Next time you’re in the grocery store, notice how many products have the color red on their packaging.
Orange
Want to appeal to an upscale market while still showing your brand’s fun side? Use orange in your branding! This color is viewed as friendly, confident, and energetic, as seen with Nickelodeon and Harley-Davidson. Lighter shades of orange also attract higher-paying consumers, making it the perfect color for the best of both worlds.
Yellow
Bring optimism, positivity, warmth, and clarity to your brand by incorporating yellow. Great for point-of-sale displays, a person’s eyes are often drawn to yellow first before any other color on the rainbow. That’s why popular companies use this color like McDonald’s, IKEA, Sonic, and National Geographic.
Green
Take a look outdoors, and you’ll quickly understand why the color green promotes growth, health, harmony, and freshness. The powerful serenity brought on by plants is the reason behind green branding for Tropicana, Holiday Inn, and Animal Planet’s old logo. (You’ll soon see why they changed their logo from green lettering to a blue elephant!
If you’re looking to promote your brand as prestigious, use deep greens found in the logos of Whole Foods and Starbucks.
Blue
What do Facebook, Lowe’s, NASA, and Walmart have in common? They all use blue in their branding! Blue is seen as trustworthy, strong, dependable, and secure – making it a popular color for many powerful companies and offices.
The psychological impact of blue is one of the reasons why Animal Planet changed its logo in 2018. Swapping the long-standing green lettering to a blue elephant, the company said the fresh look symbolizes a “strong, distinctive and joyful mark.”
Purple
Evoke feelings of creativity, wisdom, royalty, and imagination with purple. This color is popular in playful brands like Claire’s, the Willy Wonka Candy Company, and Taco Bell, as it instantly advertises a lighthearted message.
You can go a step further and promote nostalgia and sentimentality with the color lavender!
Pink
What would Vineyard Vines be without its iconic pink whale logo? Pink is a diverse color that represents youth, playfulness, and innocence. You can find it in a wide range of branding, including Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, T-Mobile, and, most notably, Barbie.
Brown
Similar to green’s earthy aesthetic, brown gives a rugged and old-fashioned look to any brand. The color is most prominent in logos for companies that have been around for a long time – M&M – or want to emit a nostalgic feel – like Cracker Barrel.
Black & White
Prestigious, classic, bold – that’s what comes to mind when consumers see black and white branding. This is why many high-end brands, like Prada, Gucci, and CHANEL, use these colors to create a traditional look. Using this color combo sets companies up with a timeless feel.
Need Help Picking Selecting the Right Brand Colors? We can Help!
Now that you’ve narrowed down your brand colors, it’s time to boost your message with marketing. Let Social Stamina put in the leg work for you! Book your FREE consultation to help solidify your brand online.