Choose the Best Colour Palette for Your Brand
- Branding
- 05 July 2024
CONTENTS
Colours: The Essence of Visual Identity
Take a moment to envision a garden with your eyes closed. What colour combinations come to your mind?
Shades of green and hues of brown?
As Pablo Picasso once said, “Colours, like features, follow the changes of the emotions.” They create primitive thought processes and impact our perception.
Colour is an essential element in establishing brand identity.
However, with countless variations and options available, choosing the right colours can feel daunting. If you’ve ever had trouble picking the right colour for your brand, you’ll relate to the challenge we’re discussing.
Contents
-
- The Importance of Choosing Brand Colours
- Understanding Colour Theory: Primary, Secondary, and Complementary Colours
- Creating a Harmonious Colour Palette for Your Brand
- Leveraging Colours to Convey Brand Personality and Emotions
- Coca-Cola’s Successful Brand Colour Choices: A Case Study
1. Showcase Your True Colours
Research has revealed that individuals form a subconscious evaluation of a product within 90 seconds, with colour accounting for up to 90% of visual identity.
Color Inc suggests that brand colour attracts 75% of new customers. It is the shortest route to capture the hearts of your target audience.
Here’s how we can pick the right colours for your brand.
2. Say it Without Saying it:
According to the Economic Times, 60% – 80 % of purchase decisions are influenced by the choice of colour. Therefore, the colour should match the vibe of your company, revealing your classic brand personality.
When defining your brand identity, consider the following aspects
-
- Gender: Does my brand possess a masculine or feminine identity?
- Projection: Does it represent an image of fun or professionalism?
- Quality: Is it a premium or luxury brand?
- Target: Is my brand aligned with modern or classical elements?
- Energy: Does my brand appeal to young or mature audiences?
3. Hues and Shades
The colour wheel comprises graphically organised colours, representing different hues based on their wavelength. All credit to Isaac Newton, who invented the colour wheel by splitting white light from sunlight reflected on prisms.
Colours of the Rainbow Wheel
Primary colours: Red, Blue, and Yellow
Secondary colours: Green, Orange and Purple
Tertiary colours: Aqua, Violet
Minor Distinction
Cool colours: Blue, Green, Purple
Warm colours: Red, Orange, Yellow
Colour Schemes
Complementary colours: Colours positioned on opposite sides of the colour wheel
Analogous colours: Three colours that are adjacent to each other on the colour wheel
Triadic colours: Evenly placed colours on the colour wheel
Monochromatic colours: Shades sharing the same hue
4. How to Choose a Colour Palette for Your Brand
Once you have identified your context and industry specifications, create a brand palette with three essential colours. The primary brand colour takes the stage to represent your brand and takes up 60% of the palette. The accent colours add depth and complement the base, covering 30% of the palette.
Finally, add a touch of neutrality with 10% white or grey for a pleasant background. Personalise it with your artistic flair. The base-accent-neutral approach provides a solid foundation.
Here’s Where You Can Leverage Colour Branding
-
- Logo, Website
- Brochures / Portfolio,
- Advertisement collateral
- Apparel and merchandise,
- Social media colour Scheme
5. Red Reign: Coca-Cola’s Expedition to Global Acclaim
Coca-Cola has established a powerful brand image for over a century. They have achieved this by consistently incorporating the vibrant colour red in their logo, packaging, and advertisements.
This strategic choice has resulted in remarkable global recognition of the Coca-Cola logo. The colour palette evokes joy and happiness, creating a strong emotional connection with consumers.
With its signature colour branding, the company remains an iconic global brand associated with refreshment and enjoyment even today!
6. The Colour Dilemma
Consider the industry in which your company shall operate before finalising the selection of your brand palette.
Restaurants
Colours can psychologically influence customers, shaping their perception and behaviour in different settings, including restaurants.
This intriguing phenomenon manifests through restaurant logos, ambience, interiors, furniture choices, and menus.
Red:
Stimulates appetite. Fast food chains like McDonald’s and KFC provoke urgency, prompting customers to make quick choices.
Yellow and Orange:
This cheerful colour combination expresses joy. Brands like Taco Bell and Burger King create a vibrant atmosphere, providing customers with contentment.
Green:
Green signifies freshness, nature and health. Restaurants offering organic and healthy food, like Subway and Starbucks, often use green to convey a sense of well-being.
Banking:
The calming and dependable qualities of blue instil a sense of security and professionalism, making it suitable for businesses that aim to build long-term relationships with their clients. American Express, PayPal and Chase are some financial institutes that use blue in their primary visual presence. It evokes trust, reliability, security and pledges stability.
Technology and Electronics Company:
By opting for a blend of blue, red, green, and yellow, Google and Microsoft convey a harmonious fusion of dynamism (red), vitality (green), enjoyment (yellow), and trustworthiness (blue). Samsung opts for a monochromatic navy blue, while Apple embraces an elegant black and white logo, reflecting timeless aesthetics.
7. Colour and Culture: The Correlation
Green symbolises wealth and earthiness and holds diverse cultural connotations worldwide. In the United States, green is commonly associated with money and progress.
In South America, it takes on a contrasting meaning as the colour of death, reflecting cultural beliefs and customs. Similarly, green is considered a forbidden colour in Indonesia due to its association with cultural taboos.
In Western countries, red carries dual meanings, representing danger and love, often associated with emergencies. Orange is considered a sacred colour in most Eastern countries, including India. The Middle East associates it with loss and sadness.
These stark differences showcase the impact of cultural perspectives and symbolism.
8. Cultural Adaptation to Branding Strategies
Uber, a prominent transportation company, uses a global approach. There are 65 brand colour palettes for Uber based on the target market.
(Insert image of the colour palette)
Another perfect example is McDonald’s’ colour theory. On their Swedish site, they use green instead of red to match the local preference for a healthy lifestyle. Conversely, in Indian culture, red holds sacred significance and is predominantly visible on their website. (insert screenshots of the Swedish and Indian versions of the website.)
When companies strategically choose brand colours that align with their target audience’s cultural preferences and associations, their brand personality becomes more authentic and relatable.
For instance, a brand targeting a health-conscious market like Starbucks may opt for green, showcasing nature and vitality to communicate a sense of well-being, in contrast to a brand targeting luxury or sophistication like Chanel, which may choose a sleek black or elegant gold to convey a sense of exclusivity and prestige.
9. The Best First Impression
There is a popular saying, ‘First impressions count’.
Your brand colours serve as the initial point of contact for consumers.
Also, remember brand colours go beyond mere aesthetics. You can make informed decisions by considering your business industry landscape and association with your target audience. Emotions drive brand decisions, so always appreciate the visual impact of colours on your brand’s victory.
Now that you are equipped with the knowledge of colour distinctions, it is time to finalise your brand colour palette.
Level up your Visual Marketing with us today.
recommended
Emotional Marketing Strategy and Customer Experience
- MIU Blog
- 07 November 2024