The psychology of color is likely a concept you’ve heard about before; how certain colors can evoke specific moods, invite desired actions and create particular energies in the viewer. Color science is nothing new – it’s been proven for many decades to have influence on consumers, with compelling results.

So when you’re branding your company’s marketing and advertising materials, this is one area you don’t want to ignore. Your choice of color alone can have significant impact on the success or failure of your campaigns.

Why All The Fuss About Color?

Try selling a soothing spa treatment with fire engine red marketing materials; or a heavy metal band with pastel baby blue – doesn’t seem like much of a fit, does it? Perhaps want to be unique in your marketing approach, by ‘breaking the mold’ and going against conventional marketing wisdom. Not a bad thing, but bear in mind that it doesn’t always make sense to re-invent a wheel that already works well.

For example: consider your target market; those consumers who are most likely to have need or desire for your product. And let’s say your business is the sale of rugged men’s hiking boots. Knowing that location matters, you strategically post your ads, (posters, billboards, etc) near camp sites or information centers at the base of popular mountain climbing destinations. All good so far, right?

Now, imagine your ads are primarily colored in powder pink and canary yellow. Wait… what? Right – it already makes no sense, because those rugged ‘manly men’ consumers you’re trying to attract will likely never give a glance at your advertisements, and it’s all due to bad color choices for your branding. Being unique in your branding only counts when people are actually viewing your materials – but first, you must get their attention with a color scheme that resonates with the type of consumer you’re trying to attract.

Obviously the example above is to the extreme, but you get the idea – color matters, so you must choose wisely when it comes to your branded materials.

Here’s a general outline of the energy associated with some common colors, to give you an idea of where to start when you’re considering the design of your branded marketing materials:

• Red – strength, power, passion, love, urgency, energy, flamboyance, excitement
• Pink – femininity, gentility, softness, passivity, romance, calmness, fragility, friendship
• Orange – energy, enthusiasm, joy, fun, warmth, creativity, clarity
• Yellow – optimism, cheerfulness, hope, happiness, energy, confidence
• Blue – serenity, trustworthiness, responsibility, efficiency, friendliness, intelligence, security
• Green –warmth, life, nature, growth, environment, goodwill, fertility, health, wealth
• Purple – royalty, luxury, prestige, elegance, wisdom, dignity, mystery, creativity
• Gold – luxury, prestige, wealth, quality, pedigree, wisdom, illumination, energy
• White – purity, innocence, goodness, light, hygiene, efficiency, perfection
• Black – power, prestige, drama, sophistication, formality, elegance, mystery, security
• Brown – stability, masculinity, comfort, earthiness, nature

In a future article, we’ll focus more on color combinations for a complimentary color palette, and which demographics will be most likely to respond to these overall color schemes.