brand color chart

Color Can Improve Your Brand Identity

Brand color is one of the most important decisions you will make as a small business owner. 90% of snap judgments made about products or services are based on color alone (Entrepreneur.com). And it isn’t only about what color you choose but how you feel your customers will react with the relation of the color and your brand. It’s crucial to remember that when choosing your colors, it’s important to match the color to your brands personality and not solely based on stereotypical color-emotion pairs.

color tablets

Say your small business sells wood, the appropriate color would be brown or tan as it gives an earthy tone. If your brand color was pink, your customers may question your color decision, or worse, they may mistake your business for a business that sells a different product. So let’s talk more about the factors color play in your business.

  1. Color increases brand recognition up to 80%. Imagine if the Subway logo was shown in 5 side by side pictures, each with a different color scheme. Your brain would tell you right away that the one that is yellow and green is the real logo. Your brain absorbs color before anything else, in fact words are the last thing a person recognizes after color, shapes, and sizes. Another example is your local sports team. Chances are you can quickly name the teams 2 colors. Those colors were strategically chosen believe it or not.
  2. Color increases memory. You’ve heard the phrase, a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Well a strong brand color can help turn that thousand into a million, since your customers are associating all that they remember with the brand once they see the logo with your colors. Coca Cola does a great job with this in their holiday commercials. They use a white polar bear drinking a coke and the red from the Coca Cola bottle is the main focus. Now when people see the Coca Cola image and color, they associate with positive feelings from that and similar commercials, all emanating positivity.
  3. Color engages and increases participation. Ads in the newspaper that are in color are read 42% more of the time than those in black and white. This also goes for ads online. Make sure your content incorporates your brand colors so that people (even if it is subconsciously) start making associations with your brand and brand color.

Now you know that color increases brand recognition, memory, and participation, you can start to gauge how consumers will view your brand color in association with your brands personality. Traditionally, red as a brand color means excitement, yellow means warm, and brown means rugged, but a successful brand also takes into consideration how their consumers will perceive the brand. To get you started with understanding how to choose your brand color, check out our brand workshops to help you pinpoint your brands identity and choose the colors that will make your business stand out, in the very best way.

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  1. […] colors to evoke the mood you want. Orange, red, and yellow evoke a sense of excitement, while cool colors […]

  2. […] In your point-of-purchase displays, you can choose whether you want to use color to continue the brand of colors your business already has, or tailor the colors to the specific product you’re highlighting. All […]

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