How to Choose the Right Colors to Represent Your Business

How to Choose the Right Colors to Represent Your Business


Once you've decided on a name for your new business, picked the products/services you want to offer, selected a physical location and/or website name, and obtained any needed funding, it's time to pay close attention to your marketing plan. Picking branding colors is an integral part of generating sales and cultivating customer loyalty, as statistics show that over 90% of consumers consider visual appearance to be the most persuasive marketing factor, and 85% of consumers admit that color is the biggest motivator in choosing a particular product.

What is Color Psychology, and Why is it Important?

Color psychology is, put simply, the study of how certain colors affect human behavior. Seeing certain colors stimulates certain emotions and feelings in viewers; in fact, medical professionals have found that colors can impact the result of a medical test, as using certain colors for placebo pills enhances their perceived efficacy.

Color psychology plays an integral role in any marketing plan because picking colors that are most likely to appeal to your target audience will boost your marketing ROI. What's more, the right shades will elicit emotions in consumers that make them want to buy your product or service, and/or sign up for your emails. Your chosen colors also convey information about your core values, helping consumers know what to expect from your company if they do business with you.

Yellow

Yellow is the fourth-most commonly used branding color for top brands, with 13% of businesses using this shade to some extent in their branding.

Yellow conveys feelings of positivity, happiness, warmth, and optimism. It has a youthful feel and ambiance, and its bright, eye-catching nature makes it easy for people to notice it on signs and branded products.

Yellow is a great choice of branch color for companies in many industries. It can be ideal for casual eateries because, when combined with orange and red, it stimulates the appetite. It works well for companies that create products/services for children, including daycare centers, toy companies, and pediatric offices. Because it inspires hope and positivity, it can also work well for travel agencies and companies offering vacation packages to areas close to the seaside.

Pink

Pink is one of the least common brand colors, and it's not hard to see why. It's almost automatically viewed as a feminine color to be picked by companies that cater solely to a female audience. It's also viewed as soft and weak, attributes most brands don't want to convey to their target audience.

However, a pink logo may be right for you as it elicits a range of positive emotions and feelings in certain target audiences. Pink is soft, warm, innocent, and calm. It denotes love and kindness, making it a great choice for medical professionals who want to reassure their target audience that they have their best interests at heart. It can be used by companies offering baby products and beauty products. It can even be a great option for real estate and tech companies, as pink is rarely if ever used by brands in these industries and so is almost certain to stand out to new clients.

Black

Black and grayscale are the third-most-common color choice for leading brands, with nearly 30% of companies using this shade in their branding. It conveys a range of positive messages, including prestige, luxury, sophistication, power, and modernity.

Brand names from a range of industries can benefit from all that black has to offer. Upscale restaurants, bars, and beauty salons often use black to appeal to a middle and upper-class audience. Luxury brand names make use the color to denote the fact that their brands have been around for centuries yet are modern and cutting-edge. Construction companies can use black to denote the strength and durability of their products and/or services, as can companies offering services related to plumbing and HVAC repair, maintenance, and installation. Tech services can use black to convey modernity and reliability. It can be easily paired with another color but is also great on its own, as is evidenced by Nike's and Apple's timeless black logos.

Red

If you're looking for a color that elicits passion, excitement, and energy, red may be the best color choice for your business. Red is also closely associated with the medical industry thanks to its widespread use by the Red Cross and on barber poles. (Barbers in the Middle Ages offered medical services ranging from amputations to bloodletting, and the red on the traditional barber pole denoted this to their customers at the time.)

While red comes in various shades and hues, its bright, attention-grabbing nature ensures that people will notice it on your signs, flyers, and online platforms. It's a great color choice for medical professionals who offer a range of services for a diverse target audience, as it's attention-grabbing, has a traditional feel and appearance, and appeals to people of all ages, genders, and walks of life. It's been successfully used by financial industries and sports brands to denote passion and vitality. Coca-Cola and Pepsi use red in their logos to give their brand an energetic feel.

Green

Green is an incredibly versatile color that can convey many different messages, depending on how it's used and which shade you select for your brand. As it's the color of the United States dollar, green is commonly used to denote wealth and prosperity. It's also the color of most plants and can be used to convey feelings of serenity, growth, and a connection with nature.

Green is a perfect color for any company that puts a premium on offering eco-friendly services and products. Plant nurseries, businesses selling organic foods, companies offering solar panel installation, cutting-edge firms that make electronic vehicles, landscaping companies, and NGOs focused on conservation will likely find green to be an ideal branding color. It works well for real estate agents as well, as people who want to buy a new home often envision themselves buying a house with a front and backyard, in a neighborhood with plenty of trees and nearby parks.

Green can also be ideal for any company that offers financial or financial planning services. Lawyers, lenders, insurance agencies, banks, life coaches who specialize in teaching people how to build wealth, and investment companies can successfully use green to convey wealth and prosperity along with safety and security.

Blue

Nearly one in three of the world's top one hundred companies use blue in their logo and branding. Light shades of blue denote tranquility, trustworthiness, and openness while dark blue exudes feelings of strength, security, and trustworthiness. Blue also exudes confidence and the fact that it's commonly used by the world's leading brands gives people the impression that a brand using this shade is a reliable firm that will be around for the foreseeable future. Like black, it also conveys the impression of formality and professionalism.

Light blue can be a greater color choice for services related to clean water, fresh air, and the open skies. It pairs well with orange and yellow for vacation companies, can work well for cruise lines, and may be the color of choice for plumbing services. Dark blue, on the other hand, is a great color for professional entrepreneurs such as lawyers, advisors, consultants, and tech professionals. It also works well for investment companies, financial institutions, banks, law firms, high-end private schools, and companies selling formal business attire.

Which color or combination of colors is the best option for your business? That's a question only you can answer, as combining the above-mentioned colors with other colors can either accentuate or decease the subconscious feelings they elicit in potential buyers. Even so, understanding the foundation of color psychology and how it works can help you create a winning brand design and logo that will appeal to your target audience both now and in the future.

Consider the information outlined above when designing a brand for your new firm. Try out various color combinations using an online logo maker and ask others what they think and feel when seeing certain color combinations and designs to find the best color scheme for your company. By investing careful thought and research in selecting company colors, you will be creating an invaluable branding asset that should empower you to reach your long-term business goals.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best color for sales?
The right colors and hues will evoke emotions in consumers that encourage them to buy your product or service. For the right choice, you need to study the psychology of color and then decide on the one that suits your niche.



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