Color psychology in branding refers to studying how colors sway our opinions of companies. Colors have a significant bearing on our feelings, and these emotions, in turn, influence our behavior as consumers.
Whether you are a soda company packaging your beverage in glass bottles, or a snack company wrapping your treats in nylon, color psychology greatly influences how and if consumers interact with your product.
To better understand color psychology, you first need to understand that it has a parent area of study known as neuromarketing. This more or less refers to the observation and record of physiological and neural activity to get insight into customer decisions, preferences, and motivations. In very simple terms, neuromarketing is the study of how human brains react to marketing material.
As the company owner, having to learn and implement all this new information may sound overwhelming. Luckily for you, labeling companies such as Quadra Flex do all the heavy lifting for you. It is hard enough designing your own product labels but incorporating paradigms such as color psychology can make it a nightmare.
Quadra Flex not only provides you with label printing solutions, but they go the extra mile by also doing graphic design. Having qualified graphic designers with experience since the ‘90s, Quadra Flex labels will not only ensure you get quality, but they will harness the power of color selection to get you sales for the products’ lifetime.
The study of brand color psychology helps us better understand why we interact with specific companies and products around us. From a marketers’ perspective, the psychology of colors helps them determine what impression consumers have of them and if their color palette draws consumers to the entity or convinces them to make a purchase.
Whether building a new enterprise, creating marketing materials, or rebranding an existing business, a good understanding of color psychology in branding will set you apart from the competition.
In a study observing the impact of color in marketing, it was found that above 85% of last-minute decisions about products stemmed from color by itself.
However, it would be incorrect to assume color interpretation by consumers is universal. This phenomenon is too contingent upon personal experiences to have a one size fits all translation. Research informs that cultural differences, personal experience, upbringing, and context create variations in how people’s brains internalize and interpret colors.
It is important to stress the significance of using brand partners and branding and design companies when designing your labeling. Color interpretations also differ from product to product, and it is a precise science of correctly matching the two. Quadra Flex, a labeling company with experience spanning sectors such as wine, hemp products, cosmetics, and food, just to name a few, have experience using these nuances to precisely match products with suitable color palettes.
Quadra Flex Quality Labels ensure you get professional product labels while paying attention to the details that most management misses. Whether you are a start-up needing 100 labels or an established brand that needs upwards of 200,000, Quadra Flex ensures the same attention to detail, and quality printing is applied across the board.
As an example of varied interpretation, think of the color brown. Often used to create a rugged edge for products like cowboy boots or gun holsters, in other contexts, it has evoked warm and comforting feelings, such as in chocolate adverts. Another good example is the use of green for environmental causes.
Here, it is used to convey friendliness to the planet and environmental preservation. When employed by a company in the finance sector, such as Intuit’s Mint, it signifies generosity and growth and has possessive connotations.
Two very different applications but for the same color. The color green also encourages equilibrium in the brain, which improves decisiveness. When used well, it can push consumers to make a decision.
Quadra Flex has helped hemp companies create custom CBD labels that harness the holistic nature of the color green. From those three applications, you can see how the same color is used for the same properties but in very different sectors.
Importance of Color Psychology in Branding
- Humans have emotional reactions to color. Yes, colors provoke emotions within us even without our knowledge. Our brains associate red with passion, love, and expediency. Orange is exciting and energizing. Marketers and branding professionals know that and utilize this knowledge to influence your decisions. A good example of this is the utilization of the color red during Valentine’s season. It brings up the passion you feel for your loved one and encourages you to do something to express it. Many insurance and real estate enterprises use blue to signify trust and professionalism.
- Color psychology helps your brand stand out. Are you contemplating creating a logo or web presence for your company? Before you go ahead, have you considered how colors influence your overall image? Do the colors you have in mind represent your brand personality? Will the pigments you have chosen make you distinguishable from your competitors? Using a blend of colors that match your values and mission statement makes it easier for customers to separate you from the competition. Furthermore, they enhance your personality. For example, if you are a kid’s toy manufacturer, you may use the color yellow to convey optimism, positivity, and happiness.
- Colors will help you fortify brand messages and content. Whether on your website, social media, packaging, or advertising material, colors can greatly enhance the digestibility of your message and encourage consumers to take desired actions. When coming up with your brand kit, it is very important to think about how you can use colors to enhance your content in different scenarios. For example, notice that on a lot of websites and advertisements, the ‘Buy Now,’ ‘On Sale,’ and ‘50% Off’ banners are usually in red. Here, red is used for the action and energy signals it provokes in the brain.
A neuropsychological study found that the use of the color red in the call to action led to more purchase decisions across business sectors. Colors such as yellow are good for new product/service launches as it conveys optimism and excitement.
If a company has both yellow and red in its brand kit, it can easily incorporate them into its content without looking out of place. While harnessing the power of psychology, they can still create marketing material that feels organic to their brand.
