Any experienced business owner knows that colors play a big role in consumer decision-making. Manufacturers are experimenting with their product packaging colors, stores are creating bright and colorful signs, and established brands by spicing up their logo designs. Color truly is of paramount importance when it comes to building, promoting, or re-branding your business. Just like sounds, words, symbols, and letters, colors can convey different meanings. But they do this very subtly, non-verbally. Therefore, it’s very important for the success of your entrepreneurial venture that you understand how colors may influence consumer behaviors and perceptions and use color psychology to your advantage. So, whether you’re a new business owner looking to establish your brand image or a seasoned entrepreneur eager to give your business a boost, you’ll find today’s post particularly useful.
Get to Know Colors Better
Colors are not just a visual property and a product of the light spectrum. Colors can communicate messages, entice, convince, or, vice versa, put off. So, if you want to ensure your brand is communicating the right message, you need to be familiar with color meanings and symbolism. After that, you’ll be able to come up with the most effective marketing strategy that will help you leverage colors and create strong brand-based loyalty.
To choose the right brand colors, you should predict your potential customers’ reaction to them. In other words, you should think about the mood you want to create and the image you want to convey with your color scheme. So, if you own a sportswear manufacturing company, you may consider using green or blue as your major brand colors. They are commonly associated with reliability, stability, health, and wisdom. While the color blue suggests tranquility and comfort, its green counterpart is commonly associated with nature and sustainability. So, either of these colors or the combination thereof can also be used by the companies specializing in the development of dietary supplements, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, etc.
More creative businesses including game development, film production, show biz, or the like, may want to opt for a more sophisticated color palette. Purple, violet, or orange would emphasize your business uniqueness, thirst for exploration, and creativity.
Multicolored branding is also a good way to go if you want to make your company stand out. The combination of different colors and a vivid mix of hues can be a win-win option not only for digital and media companies, but any brand that is being promoted on popular social media platforms like Instagram. So, whether you’re a new business owner looking to establish your brand image, a seasoned entrepreneur eager to give your business a boost, or seeking expertise from a top-rated digital branding agency, you’ll find today’s post particularly useful. By the way, Instagram brand palette itself, as well as other social media colors, is worth a closer look if you’re looking to get inspired!
Monochromatic colors (black and white) are timeless options which are often chosen by the companies that aim for simplicity and minimalism. At the same time, these colors help create a crisp look and emphasize a brand’s classiness and sophistication.
Learn Color-Related Terminology
Picking a color that seems to be congruent with your brand philosophy and aesthetic may seem like a no-brainer. Still, if you want your brand colors to have a more powerful effect on your customers’ emotions, you should not only familiarize yourself with the basic colors but also delve into nuances. You may want to start simple. Educate yourself about the basic color theory. Learn about the color wheel, color harmony, and color context. Then, move on to color shades, tints, saturation, and hues.
Do some research on your own or ask professional designers to help you with color terminology. Not only will this help you articulate your ideas and preferences more accurately and efficiently, but also speed up the overall color selection process.
Research Your Competitors
Undoubtedly, you have some brands that inspire you. They might occupy a completely different niche or be your direct competitors. So, your primary goal is to identify what makes them stand out from the crowd. Are their brand colors sophisticated or, vice versa, compliant with the popular oversimplification trends? Do they leverage a mix of different hues or masterfully experiment with saturation?
Do some homework and thoroughly investigate your competitors’ visual design and branding color choices. Try to learn more about how big brands research their audience and narrow their color choices. Make sure to pay attention not only to primary but also secondary and tertiary colors. Try to determine the underlying symbolism of the colors your competitors successfully use to boost their brand recognitions and attract customers.
Select Your Ideal Colors
You’re the one who knows everything about your brand. So, the onus is on you to pinpoint the colors that can best represent your ethics, principles, and its overall ambience. Make sure that your palette evokes the right emotions and creates an effective mind map of the important aspects inherent in your brand identity.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with your colors. You can create several versions of your branding colors and juxtapose them. To make sure the color selection process goes as smoothly as possible, you want to jot down the most important characteristics and keywords describing your company. Based on that, brainstorm some color ideas that might help communicate your brand’s core values and cultivate strong emotional connections with customers.
