Do you ever think about why certain colors are used in the branding and marketing of your fav brands? For established brands, a singular color can be fundamentally connected to the business’s organic identity in the market. The best way to illustrate this point is, just think of Starbucks popular green and white cups or Cadbury’s exemplary purple color or even Coca Cola’s dazzling red color. All these brands had very specific reasons and motivations to select these colors to build their brand identity. You may not be aware of it, but color actually impacts how the brain views and perceives this world.
Research states that 93% of buyers just focus on the visual outlook of the product. And, surveys show that 84.7% of buyers say that color is the initial draw card. Numerous studies have discovered that specific colors have specific effects on consumers, with some activating parts of the brain in ways that encourage either excitement or serenity. Using these facts and by simply choosing the right mix of colors, corporations and big brands influence their target customer base easily. But how exactly will you incorporate color into brand identity, logo design, website design or as a whole in digital marketing??
Well, to understand that you need to first understand what the heck is Color Psychology??
Color psychology is the study of how colors influence people's perceptions and behaviors. Color psychology in marketing and branding is concerned with how colors affect consumers' perceptions of a brand and whether or not they convince consumers to consider certain brands or make a purchase.
Color Psychology and its application in Digital Marketing:
It is critical for a brand to build a strong visual image in today's digital age. Visual branding must be tried out with ample amount of consistency across all digital and non-digital marketing media. Most of the times, your website is the primary point of interaction between your company and potential clients. Making a good first impression is vital. According to studies, our brain analyses images 60,000 times faster than simple text, and 90% of information transmitted to our brains is visual.
Color is a fantastic tool for capturing attention and conveying meaning. You can have the best website content and calls-to-action in the world, but if the prospective buyer does not have a good emotional connection to the colors, they will leave your site and ignore your digital marketing.
Color coordination with branding helps to visually express a narrative. Color establishes the mood for how the customer perceives it. When developing a brand based on colour, select a color that represents the desired connection and use it consistently throughout your logo, advertising, and website design.
But how do you pick a particular color??
Consider your marketing objectives and the response you want from your customers. Do you want people to be enthralled by your brand? Consider your target market. What are their values and goals? What do they enjoy?
Consider which shade will generate website traffic, clicks, and urge people to act or purchase when building your website or digital marketing. There is no particular color that is the most effective at raising conversion rates on a website. However, study suggests that when a color shines out, it eventually performs better. Hub Spot compared a green call-to-action button to a red call-to-action button. The red button outperformed the green button by 21%.
3 Different ways to Utilize Colors
Color complementation is the perception of colors in relation to other colors. When shades on different ends of the color spectrum are used in a design, the eye is given a balance rather than straining to see a certain color.
By clearly distinguishing the items on a page, contrast decreases eyestrain and catches the user's attention. If your website has a dark background, choose a lighter color for the actual content. Using a variety of contrasting shades might assist direct the viewer's attention to key page elements.
The feeling of your design is determined by its vibrancy. Using more vibrant colors in your design makes the user feel more energized, which can be useful when advertising a product. Darker color tones relax the mind, allowing it to focus on other things.
Brand Identity, Logos and its Trends
The relationship between brand identity and color is very intimate. In the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, researchers Lauren Labrecque and George Milne explain that "like a carefully chosen brand name, color carries intrinsic meaning that becomes central to the brand’s identity, contributes to brand recognition, and communicates the desired image."
Just consider these facts – more than 75% of credit card company logos and 20% of fast-food chains’ logos use blue. But, you know, over 60% of retail brands use red, but in the case of apparel logos, it’s absolutely zero.
Let’s contemplate the logos of Fortune 500 companies -- we get to see that blue has out and away been the most sought-after logo color for these companies. Red, whereas, is the second most popular choice, although it’s considered a bit of a bold selection for a brand. By examining it closely, we observe that there’s an exact connection between a red logo and the Food and Retail Industries. Although purple pops over here and there within the Fortune 500, pink doesn’t feature the least bit.
We see that several brands modify their logos every 5 years or so, permitting them to remain the most relevant amongst the ongoing trends, plus staying faithful to their core brand identity. You got to take your business goals into consideration while determining whether to follow logo design trends or not – if you’re running a small business of local apparel stores, then it is sensible to follow trends; however, if you plan to set up a business that’s going to stay for several years to come, focus on something ageless.
Intersection of Behavioral Psychology and Perception of Colors
Human Beings tend to develop customized perceptions of every color, as they start to get acquainted with their surroundings.
Let’s consider two contrasting scenarios---- Firstly, for someone who grows up in an exuberant family in a mansion with a blue door, he will relate that blue color to happiness and comfort. Secondly, if a kid grew up with an abusive parent who wore a blue uniform to his workplace, and the kid saw this blue color every single time he was abused, then the kid will always relate to grief and agony.
Thus, we can see that color is very relative when it comes to curating visual content for marketing strategies. But it’s certainly not possible to grasp the color perception of all people. To resolve this issue, you need to study your customer persona deeply, to know their color preferences, and supplement it with your industry standards for your niche, which can thus offer a far better understanding of what your color scheme should be, for a particular piece of content.
A/B testing various color schemes is additionally a superb maneuver to ascertain what actually clicks for your ideal customers and target audience.
Relevance of Culture and Gender in Color Psychology
Earlier, I mentioned different perceptions of different colors. In reality, these kinds of perceptions of colors are present in several cultures across the world, in different ways. For instance, Pink is related to ballet dancers and princesses in the United States, whereas, Pink is the hue of cherry blossoms in Japan, and the perception of it is a little different.
If you want to be a good marketer, these subtle distinctions should be taken into consideration when curating visual content, to ensure that they have the appropriate effect on your target demographic.
For instance, the color red is associated with danger or passion globally. On the contrary, red is considered to be a lucky color linked to good fortune and wealth, in China and several other Asian nations.
Gender influences color meanings in the same way that culture does. Different colors and their combinations are frequently preferred by men and women. A few shades are linked with men, while others are linked with women.
There are some colors which are even contemplated to be gender-neutral and are able to influence any kind of audience. The distinction between what women and men respond to is blurring. Gender-neutral design is becoming increasingly popular. If your brand's ideals are out of the box, then gender-neutral may be the way to go.
The bottom-line is that……
Marketers must employ every method and instrument available to generate sales, establish brand loyalty, and enhance conversions. When building your website or doing digital marketing, color is an important consideration. Use color psychology to develop a powerful, trustworthy brand.
The perfect color combination can help your business to steal the show in a congested marketplace by connecting you with your target market. Choose colors that signify what you want your business to stand for or how you want your clients to feel as they browse your online store.
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