The Psychology of Color in Branding (and How It Impacts Sales)
Ever notice how you get a feeling about a brand before you even learn the name? That first hit comes from color. Your brain processes color before it reads the text. Later, when you recall the brand, the color is often the first cue you notice. This is intentional and a common industry practice.
What Is Color Psychology in Branding?
Color psychology examines how colors influence mood and attention. In branding, color matters because it can help you build trust in a product faster. It can even influence what a consumer will do next, such as clicking the ‘add to cart’ button or walking into a store.
In a study conducted at the University of Winnipeg, participants made quick, instant evaluations of products. This evaluation is strongly influenced by product color. This explains the use of a color on a product label.
Associating color with a specific feeling is subjective to the individual. An individual’s culture, background, and personal experiences shape their perception. Marketers use those patterns because they work on many people.
How Culture Changes Color Meaning
Perceived color varies across cultures. Pepsi experienced this when it placed light-blue vending machines in Southeast Asia. Because blue is associated with death in the region, Pepsi’s sales dropped dramatically.
Another example is the color white. In Western cultures, it is associated with purity, while in Eastern cultures, particularly in Japan, it is associated with death. The color red is another example: in the United States, it is associated with danger, while in the Orient, particularly in China, it is associated with good fortune.
If a color is associated with a certain meaning in one region, it does not mean the same will hold in the region you are expanding to.
First Impressions and Brand Recognition
When it comes to product presentation, people make a judgment within less than 2 minutes, and 93% of these decisions come down to the product’s presentation, including its color.
Color is extremely important for brand recognition; it helps people spot your brand quickly and boosts recognition by 80%. For example, the golden arches of McDonald’s are recognizable to nearly everyone, and that recognition is one reason people used to choose to eat there.
Warm vs. Cool Colors
Colors are typically categorized into 2 major teams: warm and cool.
Warm colors such as red, orange, and yellow can make viewers feel happy and attract their attention. These colors can fuel your brain and make you go faster. That’s the reason red is used on “Sale!” signs.
Cool colors, on the other hand, feel steady and calm. They can help you relax and are used in hospitals and banks as they help you trust what you are seeing. These cool colors can provide a sense of security and help you feel safe.
We can influence customers to feel how we want them to feel during the purchase. We can use warm colors to drive quick, decisive buying, and cool colors to encourage careful thought.
What Different Colors Say to Customers
Red. Gets the attention of everyone. It elicits strong emotions like passion, power, excitement, and even hunger, which is why you see red everywhere in fast-food branding. Coca-Cola and YouTube also use it.
Blue. Trusted by the most brands and people. It is known to give a feeling of intelligence and calm. Good for Facebook and American Express. Avoid overusing, as it can make the warmth feel absent.
Green. A color of nature and growth. Used by Starbucks and Whole Foods to signal freshness. It is also a safe color, as it can mean to go.
Yellow. This is a color of Positivity! Used by Snapchat and Best Buy for excitement, as it is a highly visible color, like taxi cabs. Avoid using too much.