Colour is one of the most essential components of visual identity, hence why it’s such an important factor for brands to consider when creating branding and creative assets. Much research has been done into colour psychology and how different colours can evoke different emotions, which is why businesses must get their branding right so that their consumers behave in desired ways.
Global brands like Facebook, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s are instantly recognised just by their brand colour, showing how powerful colour psychology associations are. For example, Facebook’s blue represents feelings of trust, security and loyalty. However, the founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is red-green colourblind, so blue is the colour that he can see best. Because of this, colour psychology may not have been at the forefront of his mind when creating the social media platform. Nevertheless, colour psychology does play a vital role for other brands. For example, Coca-Cola’s red signals energy and excitement, and McDonald’s golden arches create feelings of happiness and inevitably make the consumer think of their fries.
When choosing a colour for your brand or creative assets, the colour should:
Be authentic to your brand
Choosing a colour that is appropriate for your products and services is more important in certain industries than in others, but the two should still relate to one another.
Embody your brand personality
This is how your consumers identify with your brand on a human level. Your brand colour should represent your brand’s personality.
Appeal to your audience
You should consider which colour is going to resonate most with your typical buyer persona, for example, masculine vs feminine or energetic vs calm.
Differentiate your brand
A big mistake would be to choose the same colour as any of your competitors; your brand should stand out from others in your industry.
If the colour you choose to represent your brand doesn’t adhere to any of these, then it is unlikely that your consumers will resonate with your brand and the products or services you are offering. Emotions have a role in how consumers behave, so you have to think about the emotions you want to cause to get the consumer to fulfil the desired behaviour. To do this, you have to meet your consumers’ expectations and align these with your brand’s colour.
There have been times when brand colour or creative assets have failed and were not perceived well. An example of this is ASDA’s yellow Just-Essential range. The range was deemed a ‘poverty marker’ as shoppers said the yellow branding alluded to the reduced yellow labels, also used by supermarkets. The most common reason for branding failures is down to the company’s failure to understand the correlation between the product or service they are offering and their consumers’ expectations.
Some brands also use dark patterns online to manipulate or influence their audience to make certain choices. They trick people into making decisions that are in the business’s interest but at the user’s expense. Two examples of this are:
- Instagram’s ads experience pop-ups. The pop-up uses words like “personalised” and “activity” rather than “targeting” and “tracking”, making it seem more attractive to the user. The option to “make ads more personalised” is also a bright blue, more prominent button, whereas the option to “make ads less personalised” is a dark, faded button.
- Some companies also use dark patterns on emails where the background colour might be a dark grey, for example, with the text colour with the option to unsubscribe from the email in a slightly lighter grey. This use of low contrast makes the text harder to read and, therefore, less likely that the user will unsubscribe.
Due to the manipulative nature of dark patterns, the EU is passing The Digital Services Act (DSA), which prohibits certain dark patterns related to e-commerce and is expected to become law this autumn.
In conclusion, the colour you choose for your brand and creative assets should always relate to your brand’s personality and industry whilst also meeting your consumers’ expectations. You want your brand to be perceived well so that your consumers are made to feel a certain way, will perform the desired behaviours and have an overall positive and cohesive brand experience.
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