Color Psychology & Business
Author: Angel Guadarrama— Brand Strategist and Identity Designer
Color affects us all on a subconscious level — Your mood, purchasing behavior, and problem-solving skills all become influenced based in COLOR.
Ignoring the importance of color in your branding and marketing is a missed opportunity to increase your sales and increase your influencing power within your market.
As a business owner, it’s important to know a little about color psychology so you can leverage it and convert it to profit.
The Fundamentals — What is Color?
“To see color, you have to have light.
When light shines on an object some colors bounce off the object and others are absorbed by it — Our eyes only see the colors that are bounced off or reflected.”
While subtle, color psychology can create a lasting impression on a person’s thinking and feeling, especially when viewed repeatedly, as with branding.
Below is a list of basic colors. Combination colors tend to retain traits of the parent colors, although weakened.
Red — aggressive, bold, urgent, passionate, romance, strength, war, courage, vigor and health
Orange — energetic, playful, affordable, adventure, creative, positivity, spontaneity
Yellow — friendly, happiness, attentive, optimism, energizes, joy, cheerful
Green — growing, prosperous natural, harmony, vitalize, hope, safety, balance
Blue — trustworthy, inviting, calming, loyalty, rest, intuition inspiration, wisdom, and intelligence
Purple — luxurious, royal, sensual, compassion, wisdom, mystery, spiritual, honor
Black — sophisticated, edgy, mysterious, elegance, power, formality, authority
White — clean, innocent, healthy, pure, delicacy, virginity, impartial, newness, softness
Gray — formal, gloomy, traditional, boredom, seriousness, sadness, neutral, aging
Pink — youthful, feminine, romantic, innocence, delicacy, sympathy, childish
Brown — rustic, stable, manly, reliable, security, strong, dependability, comfort
The Best Colors For You
Choosing the correct color combinations for your business is an incredibly important decision to make. Optimizing the colors for your business begins with knowing how you want your business to be perceived and to whom plan to appeal to.
Depending on your situation, certain colors are better than others.
Do you want your brand to come off as assertive and appealing to a young audience, or are you looking to appeal to quiet and older professionals?
This is where having a brand strategy in place will help you make those decisions for your brand.
Where To Use Brand Colors
Color has a good range of applications in branding and marketing that affect most aspects of business:
Logo–one of the most important color choices. The colors on your logo are forever associated with your brand and grow stronger with consistency.
Website– Your website’s background colors affect the atmosphere and user experience
In-Store Decorum–The color of the walls and floor affects the atmosphere and shopping experience.
Product Packaging–Certain colors can help you stand out and grab attention, especially by contrasting with competitor colors
Advertisement–Colors in advertisements help grab attention while encouraging brand recognition
Promotional Materials–mugs, shirts, brochures, pens, and social media. All promotional materials are opportunities to enhance your branding, especially on items that people use every day.
Color Consistency
No matter the colors you choose, it’s important to stay consistent across all channels and mediums. If you operate a storefront and a website, both should have a similar color scheme.
Consistency is critical in applying color psychology in your business. Every time a person sees the same colors regarding your brand, the stronger the association becomes.
Color psychology is an effective tool for branding. As a way of influencing brand identity, attracting attention to advertisements and products, increasing brand awareness, and communicating brand values, the right colors are connected throughout all brand and marketing strategies.
You can change an image’s entire mood and feel just by applying certain color palettes. As great as your favorite color is, there may better colors to help you achieve your goals.
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Aesthetic Villain is a brand strategist who works with founders, entrepreneurs and startups to help them build their ideal brands.
Keep in touch: follow him on Twitter or here on Medium.
