Branding Colors: Everything You Need to Choose Your Brand’s Color Palette

Have you noticed that the leading financial institutions like Bank of America, Barclay’s, and Citibank prefer to use blue as one of the dominant colors for branding? It is not just a coincidence that these financial companies are using blue for their brand identity. The logical explanation is that they are well aware of combining color theory for their business.

Analogous to building a house or furniture, you need to understand that, in the process of building your brand, you need to comprehend how to use the tools that are at your disposal.

Why do branding colors matter?

How do you feel when you hear the word love? Possibly, it will generate either a negative or positive emotion. One of the variables that influence our decision-making is emotions.

Contemporary brands want to develop a strong emotional connection with their customers. The problem lies in the fact that a company can’t convey its entire journey from start to end in a single logo or storefront. However, branding colors are capable of providing a shortcut that will go straight to the heart of your client.

As per Faber Birren, the renowned pastel color palette theorist, there is an extensive link between our emotional state and colors. Analogous to the words like “bike rack” and “love” that produces different emotions. Similarly, colors like blue and red will be generating varying human responses. Moreover, identical colors produce similar responses among different people. You must understand that it is very much possible that the yellow color, for instance, can generate the same kind of feelings in people from two distant locations in the face of this planet. It is also applicable to individual color shades. Therefore, light sky blue and dark blue will be generating different effects. You can refer to this guide to get inspired by some color palette ideas to use for your brand.

Psychologists link this phenomenon to the way human beings have evolved. They assert that the connection of stimulus to colors came into being after developing a perception with particular objects. For instance, the red color puts people on an alert mode in anticipation of danger. Similarly, the brown color of rotten food and dirt appears unappetizing.

However, there are exceptions; for instance, chocolate lovers will have a different emotion seeing the color brown. It goes to say that it all comes down to biological conditioning, and it is easy to color affiliations beyond mere preference. It is something that human beings have come to know for quite some time.

There is also an element of cultural association. In this regard, mention could be made to the way Americans associate money with the green color. It is so because the currency that they use every day is green in color. When you say the phrase” spending green” or “going green” all Americans will understand what it means.

It goes to say that even the most ardent businessperson will not be able to ignore the science that exists between the psychological effects of branding colors. There are volumes of evidence that establish that color branding works. However, the big question is how you will make it to work for you.

Application of branding colors

Neuroscientists believe that the way consumers tend to feel about a brand carries more weight than what they think about it. Besides, when you take into consideration the fact that certain pastel colors evoke certain emotions, then you must remember that brand colors can cast an impact on your brand performance and sales more than any other products that you are offered.

It is also important to realize that how, when and repetition of the same color holds the capability of strengthening brand awareness. You can visit here and check on the importance of timing of usage of pastel colors for your brand. Just refresh your memory to recollect the last time you saw a Coke can that was not read. Alternatively, when did you see a Twitter bird that is not blue? The truth is that the marketing world has become smarter following Heinz’s foray tragedy of purple ketchup.

For organizational sake, here are some of the areas where you will be using branding colors:

• Website
• Logo
• Storefront
• Staff Uniforms
• Advertisements
• In-store design

When you make it a point to ensure the use of the same color in all your contents it will be possible to strengthen your brand’s association with that particular color strengthening brand awareness as a whole.

So what does this all amounts to as far branding is concerned? It all goes to say that you need to choose your brand color carefully as it will cast a direct influence on your brand identity. For example, pink could be your favourite personal color but it may not be an apt choice to complement your business goal. However, before embarking on which colors you will want to represent, you must identify the ideal brand personality.

Determining brand identity

If you want your brand personality to be loud, energetic, and youthful, then you can use the color red. However, for a company that sells mattresses red color is not going to work as it denotes a brand personality that is relaxed and calm, advocating a restful sleep at night.

Choosing your brand color will become a lot easier if you know what you are trying to communicate to the audience. You need to think of your company as a living entity in terms of what is important to them and who they are.

When you are done with establishing your brand’s personality goals, you need to determine which colors are going to work best for you. As a starting point, you can give time to understand the emotional aspect associated with each color.

You need to understand that the effect of branding color is heavily dependent on the design and style they are used in together with the chosen color combination. If you wish to prefer a single-color brand, then you are already done with the hard part. If you have to choose multiple colors, then you need to make sure that they can be combined together gracefully. You cannot simply choose a branding color in haste. There is a need to observe and think before making the final choice.