What Your Branding Colors Communicate to Your Clients

When choosing a color for your branding, it’s important to think carefully. Colors bring along different meanings and feelings to your clients, and it can mean the difference between clients choosing you for their projects or going with your competition.

It seems like a strange consideration. Could color really have that much of an impact?

Facts about the Psychology of Color:

• 84.7% of consumers cite color as the primary reason they buy a particular product.
• 80% think that color increases brand recognition
• Ads created in color are read up to 42% more often than the same ads in black and white.

It Communicates Feelings

It’s no secret that colors are linked to different feelings and emotions. For example, red is regularly considered to be a high-arousal color. Red increases heart rate, encourages appetite and creates a sense of urgency in impulsive decisions. Blue on the other hand is a color associated with peace and a sense of calm. Blue curbs appetite, creates a sense of trust in a brand and increases productivity. It’s worth thinking about the emotion that you want to get across when branding.

This needs to work with your business in conveying the message you want perspective clients to receive.

How do you want your clients to feel when they see your logo or brand? That’s the number one question you need to ask and have an answer to.

Depending on your main color, the response you’ll receive matters. If clients feel sad or angry, are they really going to hire you? They need to feel calm, wanted and appreciated. How about trustworthy, honest and down to earth? All great feelings you want conveyed in your main color.

It Tells Whether you’re Dependable Or Not

When a client hires you, he or she wants to feel like you can be depended on. And before they pull the trigger adding you to their team they’re likely to do a lot of research but in the end it all comes down to that gut instinct and your branding color has everything to do with that. Choosing the right color will help a client decide whether you’re dependable or not.

Some blue shades while bringing sadness can also bring in trust and strength. Those feelings help to lead to the feeling of being dependable. Think about companies like Facebook, WordPress, Oral B and Dell. They all use blue in their logos, and the feeling of dependability and trust are there with the majority of them.

Using It to Show Creativity

Depending on your business, you may want to get across the feeling of being creative and exciting. Choosing the right color is important for this. Purple is an excellent option for getting the idea of creativity through, and this is important for businesses that revolve around writing, photography and graphic design just as examples.

Brands like Syfy, Yahoo and Barbie have used purple for a long time. You can also get the feeling of being regal with this color, which helps to get the feeling of being wise and easier to trust.

Working With a Specific Gender

Another strange element for some is that some branding colors work better for one gender over the other. There are some colors that work for all genders. If you’re a company that predominately works towards one gender, you can show that by choosing the right colors. For example, pinks and purples speak more to females than they do men. Blues and greens work very well when trying to connect more with the men.

If you want to make it clear you favor both genders equally, you really need to consider your color choice. Blacks, silvers, whites and greys are all great for neutral businesses. You can add hints of other colors in there, but you want to keep your branding color as simple as possible to connect with all.

Working With a Specific Gender

In the end, it really does all come down to color for your brand. It’s important to keep your logo simple, but think about the message that you are sending to your prospective clients. If you’re running a party business, the last thing you want is for people to feel sad and lethargic just by looking at your logo. You want them to feel upbeat and excited about working with you.

Quick Color Emotion Guide

Yellows  – Optimism, Clarity and Warmth

Orange – Friendly, Cheerful and Confident

Reds – Excitement, Bold, Appetite Stimulating and Impulsive

Purples – Creative, Imaginative and Wise

Blues – Trust, Loyalty, Peace and Dependability

Greens – Peaceful, Health, Wealth and Growth

Grays – Balance, Calm and Neutral

The color of your brand will give a lot of different messages to people. It will affect how they feel and whether they trust you. Think about that before you pick and stick to a specific color. Decide what message you want to get across and work towards that. If you still need help deciding on the best way to brand your logo and company contact us today!