The Power Of Brand Recognition & The Psychology Of Color In Marketing

Understanding the power of brand recognition and color psychology in marketing (advertising) can greatly help your business success.

But it's highly unlikely consumers will remember your brand after just one interaction. Most marketers apply Rule 7 when it comes to building brand awareness. Rule of 7 states that the average consumer needs to interact with your brand seven times before making a purchase.

So what is engagement? This could be magazine ads, billboard ads or online engagement through your website or social media. Or it could be an email, review, or brand mention.

Every positive interaction with a brand brings consumers one step closer to buying a product or service.

The truth is, even if customers are connected to your brand, they are not always ready to buy. This makes Rule 7 even more relevant. Various consumer interactions help you maintain and increase visibility and remind them that you are there when they are finally ready to make a purchase.

Psychology of color in branding

Building a strong brand is very important for growing your business. Color psychology is just as important in branding as the 7 rule is in marketing. The colors you use in your branding give consumers one of their first visual impressions of your business.

Research on color psychology shows that 90% of consumers make an instant decision after seeing a color associated with a product.

Color psychology is not a new branding concept. Many successful consumer brands use color psychology to promote their brands.

When you think about some of the leading brands, it's easy to understand the impact color has on brand recognition.

One of the oldest and most well-known brands has used a simple yet effective design for its brand. The iconic font of the red and white Coca-Cola logo is well known to consumers.

The 136-year-old soft drink maker seemed to know what he was doing when it came to choosing those colors. Considered the most intense color in color psychology, red increases appetite, excitement, energy and activity.

Another example of successful color branding is McDonald's. The 70 year old fast food group and its iconic golden arches have become an instantly recognizable brand around the world.

Source: HelpScout

Color psychology

Colors have expressed emotions for centuries. The color black began to signify mourning during the Roman Empire. Meanwhile, Western brides started wearing white wedding gowns after Queen Victoria wore a white lace wedding gown in the mid-19th century.

Here's a quick overview of the psychological effects of other colors and how they can be used in marketing and branding:

red

Red is one of the most used colors in branding because it evokes strong emotions and excitement, which may be used to advertise discounts and sales. It's also known to stimulate the appetite, so it only makes sense that fast food brands and restaurants use it frequently in their branding. Is it any wonder that up to 90% of shoppers make emotional decisions when red is used in marketing?

Source: Academy of Brand Masters

orange

Orange conveys warmth, confidence and positivity. It has the ability to create deep relationships with emotionally inclined buyers. Brands often use the color orange to motivate consumers to take action. Some big brands that use orange in their branding are Nickelodeon, Home Depot, Amazon, and Mozilla.

Sources: Home Depot and Nickelodeon

yellow

Yellow is known to represent communication and optimism. It is highly provoking so care must be taken when labeling it as it may cause anxiety in some consumers. Marketing and branding professionals understand this, and it's why the color yellow is the right balance for maintaining positive customer feedback. You may have seen big brands like IKEA, Best Buy, Subway, Hertz, and McDonald's using yellow as the basis for their brand image.

Source: Academy of Brand Masters

green

When you think of the color green, nature comes to mind. Along with this mindset, green promotes a calm mood and promotes a sense of good health. Green represents growth and prosperity. Well-known brands that use green in their branding include John Deere, Starbucks, Whole Foods, and Spotify.

Source: John Deere and Spotify

blue

Blue is an attractive color for male consumers. It also reminds most of us of the sky or sea water. Blue promotes confidence and calm, so it's a great color for branding. In fact, consumers are 15% more likely to do business with blue brands. Some of the biggest brands to use blue in their branding are Facebook, LinkedIn, JPMorgan, and Dell.

Sources: Facebook and Dell

Purple

The color purple comes from the colors red and blue and thus can make the best use of this color in marketing. Blue has a calming effect, while red stimulates the consumer's soul. Many cosmetic brands use purple to promote their brands, as do companies like Hallmark and FedEx.

Purple is also popular among luxury brands as it symbolizes royalty and wealth. However, caution should be exercised when using purple in branding, as too much purple can confuse consumers and cause them to reconsider their purchase. This is where a marketer can become your best friend and help you leverage enough assets to maximize conversions.

Source : FedEx and Hallmark

chocolate

Shades of brown usually evoke thoughts of simplicity and earthiness. His humility can help people feel safe and warm. But brown is one color you should pay close attention to when considering it as part of your brand.

Depending on the consumer, brown may seem boring or too plain. In addition, many associate the color brown with dirt. So if you own a restaurant, you may want to reconsider using chocolate. However, it seems to work for Cracker Barrel, so it should sometimes be considered when customizing the whole package.

If you have a business that caters to a more sophisticated category of people, you may want to avoid branding your products in brown. But if you want to appear reliable and approachable, look no further. Hershey's and UPS are among the most successful chocolate label companies.

Source: Hershey and UPS

black

For some people, a black heart represents pain or sadness and can lead to depression. But many consider black to be timeless, classic and sophisticated. Technically, black isn't really a color because it doesn't have a wavelength of its own. It is caused by a lack of light. But that's just semantics. When it comes to branding, black dominates many brands including Chanel, Prada, Adidas and Sony.

Sources: Adidas and Sony

white

Like black, white is not a color by itself. Color isn't just pigment. It's also a matter of light, and white is the presence of all visible light. White cleans and creates a feeling of safety and cleanliness. In color psychology design, white is considered minimal and the basis for creating something fresh and new.

Gray

In brand building and color psychological marketing, gray symbolizes stability and innovation. This adds sophistication and quality to the brand. A good example is Apple, which currently uses a gray apple in its logo, demonstrating its unwavering and unwavering commitment to quality products today and tomorrow.

Sources: Apple and Nissan

3 tips for choosing brand colors

1. Choose a color that matches your brand and sets you apart from the competition

Your main goal is to choose colors that reflect who you are as a company and which resonate immediately with your target audience.

Communicate your brand story and values to consumers and develop attributes that define your business. For example, if engagement is at the forefront of your brand, blue would be a color that can represent your brand effectively.

By identifying your brand's core values when evaluating your competitors, you can create a color palette and narrow down the list of color choices customers are most likely to associate with. The more authentic your brand is, the more credibility you will build for it.

2. Choose a color that reflects your brand personality

Think of your brand as a personality and define personality if it's a personality.

Color can help you express the personality of your brand because it has the ability to set the mood instantly.

For this reason, it's important to choose colors that symbolize your brand in order to create a positive brand experience for your audience.

3. Choose colors that appeal to your audience

The first rule of color psychological marketing and branding is to understand who your target is. This will help you choose a color they can identify with.

Will your product appeal to fans or casual consumers? Are women or men more likely to buy your product?

When choosing your brand colors, consider the important characteristics of your audience to maximize their effectiveness and play to their strengths.

One way to incorporate these three tips for clients is through practice with my library. I'd take a stack of popular business books, take them to client meetings, and check in on each one with the client. Often we identify one or two that everyone likes and then we can discuss why and which colors seem to suit their brand.

This is a useful exercise for two reasons. First, it's something tangible that helps people see real examples without needing to rename. Second, it builds on what other people have done – with bestsellers, a lot of thought has gone into selling it, and lots of people will know about it, so there's no harm in going with the flow and choosing a similar color. . So if you're looking for ideas, give this a try!

How to use color palettes in your website and marketing materials

In addition to determining the best color to represent your brand, it's important to know how to incorporate it into your marketing materials and website design.

The most important thing to remember is consistency. You want to maintain a cohesive, cohesive look and feel for your logo and all ad placements, be it your website, social media platforms, billboards, etc. This means using the same colors and sticking to your preferred color scheme.

Your website pages should use contrasting base, background, and accent colors. A clean background often attracts customers and helps differentiate call-to-action (CTA) buttons.

Like the rest of your page, the CTA button color should contrast against the page background. You can use the color wheel, which indicates which colors complement each other for the best contrast effect.

You need to make sure that all CTA buttons are prominent, visible and understandable to your visitors. Again, CTA button colors should reflect your brand, while choosing colors that evoke the right emotions in your audience and successfully convert them.

Brand and Color Psychology: Key Takeaways

Color has a profound psychological effect on how others perceive your brand. it is the main element that helps brand awareness.

When choosing the right color when branding your product or service, keep these important points in mind:

Choose a color that matches your brand personality
Choose one that is authentic and resonates with your brand and audience
Choose a color that sets you apart from your competitors
Choose complementary colors for marketing materials

Now that you understand the psychology of branding colors, what color should you choose to represent your brand?

How can the Hearst Bay Area help?

Marketers know that color can dramatically influence human behavior and is very important for branding.

Hearst Bay area marketing experts can help you leverage color psychology in your marketing and branding campaigns.