Color: Your Brand Is A Mess
Let’s talk about brand color and why so many companies are doing it wrong…
When starting a business, many owners pick colors based on personal preferences. Unfortunately, personal preference should rarely play a part in branding your business. Color theory itself is rooted in the evolution of our species. Put simply, we are programmed to respond to certain colors.
Red is a color of passion, excitement, but also danger–warfare ingrained this in us. Yellow is hopeful: a sign of spring and new life but it can also feel naive or abrasive. Representative of the earth, brown can be calming, grounding. It can also be unappealing since we associate it with rot and decomposition.
So how do you pick the right color? You don’t; there is no “right” color. Colors evoke emotions. You need to evoke the right emotions in the right demographic at the right time. And that takes some thinking through.
“Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions.”Pablo Picasso
Your lizard brain likes pretty colors
We want to think of ourselves as sophisticated beings, who make purchases based on sound logic. But science is laughing at us. Studies show that our feelings make the final purchasing decision–and apparently your lizard brain likes pretty colors.
Along with discovering that we make purchases based on what we are emotionally craving, we’ve also learned that repetition is key. It’s taken thousands of years of evolution to link colors to feelings, so it will take a lot of repetitive consistency for new brands to establish a lasting impression upon their clients.
How many times have you pulled up the wrong app on your phone because the color was similar to the one you intended? Repetitive branding works by creating unconscious impressions within your demographic. Getting consumers to react on instinct to a brand is what strategists spend years twisting their mustaches about.
The color wheel is your friend.
Along with many businesses choosing the wrong colors, they also limit themselves by not choosing enough colors. Some businesses have 5-10 colors in their playbook! Generally speaking, you want at least three: a base, an accent, and a neutral. The color wheel is your friend; learn about monochromatic, analogous, complementary, and triadic color schemes. Play around with the feel of your brand. Color is foundational to your brand’s identity, but it’s not the end of the line.
If you have the skills and wherewithal to create or rebrand your business here are a couple tools that will help you get started. If you want to rely on the experts skip down and talk with Branchout about “Color: Your Brand Is A Mess”.
It’s never too late to create a focused plan for your business. This shouldn’t be rushed. With proper time and strategy, your brand will be able to speak directly to your demographic at first glance.
If you need help figuring out who your audience is, what their problem is, and how to solve it, contact our team at Branchout.
If you want to know more about how we can help your brand find it’s voice online, reach out to us for an assessment of your business needs.