Color Psychology For Marketing: Branding Essentials

I am always on the lookout for bits of information to help me understand things a little better. Though I am no stranger to color theory, it’s nice to have a refresher once in a while and maybe learn something new while I’m at it.

What is Color Psychology?

Color psychology is a field of study that investigates the ways in which colors can influence people's perceptions and behaviors.

In marketing and branding, it is used to understand how colors can affect a customer's impression of a brand and whether they are more likely to consider that brand or make a purchase as a result of the colors used in branding and marketing materials.

Color Pschology: How does it affect human emotions?

Modern-Day Examples Of Brands Using Color Psychology

1. McDonald's: McDonald's is known for using the color red in their branding. Red is often associated with hunger and excitement, which makes it a effective color for a fast food restaurant.

2. Starbucks: Starbucks uses the color green in their branding, which is often associated with health and nature. This aligns with their brand message of offering natural, high-quality products.

3. Nike: Nike uses the color black in their branding, which is often associated with power, sophistication, and mystery. This aligns with their brand message of empowering athletes and promoting an active lifestyle.

4. Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola uses the color red in their branding, which is often associated with energy, passion, and love. This aligns with their brand message of bringing people together and spreading joy.

5. Tiffany & Co: Tiffany & Co uses the color blue in their branding, which is often associated with trust, reliability, and calmness. This aligns with their brand message of offering high-quality, luxurious products that customers can trust.

Facts about Color Psychology

Color psychology is the study of how different colors can affect our emotions and behaviors. Here are some interesting facts about color psychology:

1. Different colors can evoke different emotions. For example, red is often associated with feelings of passion, anger, and energy, while blue is often associated with calmness, reliability, and trustworthiness.

2. The way we perceive a color can be influenced by cultural and personal experiences. For example, white is often associated with purity and innocence in Western cultures, but in some Eastern cultures, it is associated with death and funerals.

3. Color can also influence our behavior. For example, studies have shown that people are more likely to make quick decisions when presented with options in red, and that people tend to eat more when presented with food on a blue plate.

4. Color can also affect our perception of time. For example, people tend to perceive time as passing more quickly when they are in a room with a lot of red or yellow, while they tend to perceive time as passing more slowly in rooms with a lot of green or blue.

5. The way we perceive color can also be influenced by the context in which it is presented. For example, the same shade of blue might be perceived differently depending on whether it is presented alongside other cool colors or warm colors.

How To Make Marketing Decisions Based On Color?

As the definition suggests, the psychology of color often dictates the decision-making of consumers. So, in my personal opinion, you can make decisions about color in your marketing and branding with the following points:

1. Consider your brand identity and messaging. Right color choices ensure consumers recognize the brand.

2. Research the meanings and associations of different colors in your target market. Different cultures can have different associations with certain colors, so it's important to understand how your target audience perceives different hues.

3. Use color to differentiate your brand. If your competitors are using similar colors, consider using a unique color to set your brand apart.

4. Test different color combinations. Create a few different color palettes and test them with a small group of people to see which ones are most effective.

5. Use color consistently. Once you've chosen a color palette for your brand, use it consistently across all of your marketing materials to create a cohesive visual identity.

6. Don't be afraid to experiment. While it's important to have a cohesive color palette, it's also okay to try new things and see what works for your brand. Don't be afraid to try out new color combinations and see how they perform.

Basics Of Color Theory

Tints, Shades, and Tones

Of course, you already know about colors, and which colors are primary, secondary, and tertiary (when talking about additive colors, that is), but do you know what it’s called when you mix them with white, black, or gray?

Tints are colors that have been mixed with white. Shades are colors that have been mixed with black. Tones are colors that have been mixed with gray. That’s all there is to it!

Color Harmonies

It might seem like colors are chosen to go together because they look good together, and although that’s true, there is a real reason behind it.

Color harmonies are patterns of colors based on the color wheel. There are quite a few, and you will want to choose a color scheme that fits the message you want to convey with your color marketing (more on that in just a moment).

The color harmonies include warm, cool, analogous, monochromatic, complementary, split-complementary, triadic, square, and tetradic.

In a nutshell:

• Warm: use all warm colors

• Cool: use all cool colors

• Analogous: Colors aligned next to each other on the wheel

• Monochromatic: Using only tints, shades, and tones of one color

• Complementary: Colors across from each other on the wheel

• Split-Complementary: Using three colors, two of which are analogous to the complementary color you want to include (it’s best to have one of the colors be primary)

• Triadic: Using an equilateral triangle, choose the 3 colors on the corners

• Square: Using a square, choose the 4 colors on the corners

• Tetradic: Using two sets of complementary colors together

For every color scheme, you should ensure to have one dominant color, one less-dominant color, and any other colors you utilize be used as accents. Having too many colors vie for attention is dizzying to look at and sends a confusing message.

A complementary color scheme

What Does Color Symbolism Mean?

The psychology of color is so interesting because most of it is subconscious. When you use a color in a certain way, with a certain tint or shade or tone, and in combination with certain other colors, you can convey a lot of emotional information at once. As they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Each color has negative and positive connotations. It is up to you to make sure you are choosing the right color harmonies and color shades to send the right message.

Generally, warm, bright colors can symbolize friendliness, intelligence, happiness, excitement, and energy when they are bright and pleasing to the eye. But, make them too dark (especially yellow), and you can slip into a palette that makes the audience feel burdened, heavy, sick, fearful, oppressed, and uncomfortable.

Cool colors tend to symbolize intelligence, royalty, spirituality, trust, serenity, vitality, and healing. Of course, using the wrong cool colors in the wrong context conveys depression, sadness, blandness, anxiety, and even a sense of visual onslaught (in the case of pink and violet in particular).

I especially want to talk about the color green in contemporary marketing. Green is probably the most influential color of modern times because of the push to make products feel more earthy and eco-friendly.

The easiest way to give someone a sense of “goodness” is to include a comfortable green with earth-tones or neutrals backing it up. Knowing this, it’s important to use this color scheme for a product that is truly eco-friendly in some way because being dishonest about this can cause a lot of widespread backlashes.

Using too many colors in a marketing context can be confusing. But it can also make interesting art.

White gives the feeling of freshness, purity, and simplicity. It adds “breathing space” to compositions that might otherwise be overwhelmed with color. But, use it incorrectly and white can appear sterile and unfeeling.

Likewise, black can evoke sleekness, sophistication, mystery, and wealth. Inappropriate black can switch the message into oppressiveness, feeling lost, and a sense of foreboding or fear.

Brown is a difficult color to execute well because there are so many shades of brown that are just plain bad. It often doesn’t fit well into a composition.

But, done right, brown can feel earthy, natural, cozy, and reliable. It goes well with that eco-green as discussed above! Oppositely, brown can also feel dirty, unsophisticated, cheap, and heavy.

And lastly, we have the colors that don't really color at all: metallics. Gold, silver, and bronze are, without outside help, just yellow, gray, and brown. Metallics work best in a print medium with ink or other treatment that adds an actual luster. It’s impossible to mimic the weightiness of metallic color with ink alone.

Used well, metallic can convey a sense of dignity, wealth, sophistication, and legacy. Done poorly, that message becomes cheapness, tackiness, and a feeling that the designer lacked skill.

One of the most concise and easy-to-understand videos I have seen about color psychology is this video by Visme. It offers some valuable info to remember when you are creating marketing materials.

Remembering these color basics, you can create more interesting and effective products. What is your favorite color psychology tip?