Choose The Right Colors For Your Brand

By: Lynne Saarte
Submitted: 2008-07-18 15:09:26
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One of the elements of design that boosts brand recognition is color. Yes, you need to have a compelling message and great fonts that are easy to read, but color is what people remember.

If color is so good, you might think of splashing lots of color over everything, even your store! But slow down horsey! Less color is more when it comes to branding.

Take a look at your logo – what colors did you use? Your logo tells everyone your business personality and the color(s) that make up that logo are responsible for a big part of that personality message. Every color you use sends out a different message. Even if you use complementary colors, each one has its own personality, its own meaning.

Color is not only important to your logo, but to everything from your business card printing to your brochures to your television commercials. Think about certain companies and how their choice of color represents them. What color do you think of when you think of Target stores? Red. What about UPS? They’ve even been using their color as their slogan: “What can brown do for you?” What about McDonald’s? You know those golden arches!

Notice that these successful companies all focus on one primary color for their brand. Some companies, like FedEx, have two colors (orange and purple, in case you didn’t notice), but hardly any businesses have more than two dominant colors for their marketing and advertising materials.

So how do choose the best color(s) to represent your brand? Ask yourself these questions:

1. What colors appeal to my target audience? Older people tend to not like bright colors as well as teenagers. Evaluate your target audience’s characteristics – age, gender, culture and other demographics to figure out what colors they might like best.

2. Does my primary color stand out from the competition? If you are a small company, sharing the same color as a bigger, more successful company may seem like a good idea at first. But it could backfire on you if people think when they see your brand that they are looking at the big boy’s brand. Also, you can’t go changing your colors willy-nilly – once you pick a color palette, you should stick with it for a long time (until it is no longer working). Why? If you keep changing your colors, how will people remember you?

3. What meaning does my primary color convey? Blue gives off a feeling of relaxation. Red is associated with strength and power, but also war and danger as well as love. Google “color meaning” or check out http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html for meanings on the primary colors and all the colors in between. Pick a color that gives off the emotion you want consumers to feel.

4. Is my color trendy, or will it last long? If you pick the of-the-color moment, it could backfire on you. Think about how well you’ll like that color in 5, 10 or 20 years from now. DayGlo yellow anyone?

5. What are the online color equivalents? Color is not the same online as it is in real life. Computer screens can only show so much color. Ask your printing company what colors translate well to the Web for your Web site.

Adding color without thinking seriously about it can be a detriment to your marketing campaign. However, a well-thought-out color choice can do wonders for your bottom line. Just think about it.

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