Colour Psychology and how it can be a powerful marketing tool.
Being able to incorporate colour whilst creating visuals and imagery, opened up a whole new world of possibilities for establishing and growing businesses and their brands, giving them their unique look and feel and driving the focus on the psychology of colour as a marketing tool.
The history of colour
The 1660s brought a divine change to the world as Isaac Newton began a series of experiments with sunlight and prisms. He demonstrated that clear white light was composed of seven visible colours, the colours we see in a rainbow. His work led to breakthroughs in optics, physics, chemistry, perception, and the study of colour in nature.
1861 – The world’s first colour photograph was produced by Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell. The image was created by photographing the tartan ribbon three times through red, blue, and yellow filters, then recombining the images into one colour composite. Another exciting element of colour brought into our lives.
1977 – The Apple II was released, allowing for colour display on a CRT monitor.
Colour as a marketing tool
Colour is all around us and it can be such a powerful tool for marketing your existing or new business if used correctly. Did you know that a signature colour can boost brand recognition by 80%?
In branding your business, colour psychology is focussed on how colours can impact the consumers impression of a brand and whether or not they convince the consumers to consider a specific brand above another.
Colour plays a vital role in how your brand is perceived by consumers, clients or future leads as each colour evokes different emotions and desires.
People tend to think that choosing an easy colour or perhaps even just their favourite colour will do the trick, but you have to think outside the box! Choose a colour that is authentic to your brand. Choose a colour that differentiates your brand, a colour that will really appeal to your audience and that sells your product or services subtly yet powerfully. Deciding on a colour that is not suitable for your brand and the products or services you offer, can affect the growth you are hoping for, for your business.
CocaCola, Mc Donalds, KFC, Facebook, Mercedes Benz, to name a few big brands, all carefully selected their brand colours, keeping in mind their target audience, the feeling or desire for the product they want to get across to the consumer and what will create enough impact to reach max sales potential.
When we create a new brand or logo for clients we always ask what is the feeling or emotion you would like your brand to represent?
Integrating your colour scheme across the board on your website, logos and products for example will create the highest impact on consumers to be familiar with your specific brand and it can assist in creating a visual for them that keeps them interested and coming back for more.
The colour red contains emotions like excitement and passion.
While the colour green portrays safety, stability, and reliability.
Want to build trust and loyalty with your customers then consider using colours like dark blue. Interestingly this is also the preferred colour for corporate America.
Let’s have a brief look at some colours and which emotions they are associated with:
- Red - Passion, Courage, Excitement
- Orange - Creativity, Fun, Adventurous
- Yellow - Opportunity, Happiness, Positively
- Green - Growth, Wealth, Harmony
- Blue- Calm, Wisdom, Trust, Joy
- Violet - Mystery, Sensitivity, imagination
- Pink - Compassion, Playful, Love
- Gray - Neutral, Practical, Formal
With your base colour in mind, the second step is to find an accent colour.
For many brands 2 or 3 accent colours really help elevate the brand and make it more appealing.
Take note that black and white can form part of your brand colours or can be treated as neutral colours.
Define your brand and what it stands for and then let us create a powerful business by imprinting it on your potential customers with consistent colour communication.
Selecting the right colour for your business isn’t just a matter of picking your favourite colour. If you need guidance then do not hesitate to contact us at info@chillimedia.co.za
Interested in the following:
Read more blog posts here:
Is Facebook still relevant in 2022
