Using the Psychology of Color in Your Marketing
Color is the core of brand. Emotions are powerful and have the ability to influence purchasing decisions. Color has a significant impact on a consumer’s perception of a product or service according to the emotion that they associate with the color of that product or service. As consumers, we are irrational, and our decision-making is largely driven by impulses and human behavior.
Brands strive to cultivate strong emotional connections with their customers. Understanding consumers’ cognitive biases allows marketing psychology to predict buyer behavior. Color psychology is the study of how colors affect perceptions and behaviors based on the emotional associations that our brains make with certain colors.
Color psychology has been extensively studied and proven to have a significant impact on human psychology. As a marketer, understanding and utilizing the power of color psychology in your marketing initiatives can be a game-changer in how your target audience perceives and responds to your brand. The colors you choose to represent your brand, products, and services can evoke different emotions, trigger specific actions, and ultimately influence potential customers’ decision to purchase.
One of the crucial aspects of using color psychology in marketing is understanding the meanings and associations behind each color. For example, red is often associated with energy, passion, and urgency, making it an ideal color to use in marketing campaigns to create a sense of urgency and drive action. On the other hand, blue conveys trust, stability, and professionalism, making it an excellent choice for financial or healthcare brands. By choosing the right color to represent your brand, you can effectively convey your message and cultivate the desired emotions in your target audience.
Moreover, colors can also impact how the human brain perceives and remembers information. Research has shown that individuals are more likely to remember information presented in color compared to black and white. This finding highlights the importance of incorporating colors in marketing materials such as logos, product packaging, and advertisements. By using eye-catching colors, you can grab your audience’s attention and increase the chances of them remembering your brand.
Another important aspect of color psychology in marketing is considering cultural and geographical differences. What may be perceived as a positive color in one culture may have a negative connotation in another. For example, in Western cultures, white is associated with purity and cleanliness, while in some Eastern cultures, it symbolizes mourning and death. Therefore, it is crucial to research the cultural norms and preferences of your target audience to ensure your color choices resonate positively with them.
In addition to evoking specific emotions and impacting memory, colors can also influence buying behavior. For instance, studies have shown that consumers are more likely to purchase a product presented in their favorite color. By incorporating your target audience’s preferred colors in your marketing materials, you can create a positive association with your brand and increase the chances of conversion.
Red is a very powerful, dynamic color that conjures up sentiments of excitement, energy, power, fearlessness, and anger, as well as amorous feelings of love, desire, and passion. Because it conveys a sense of urgency, red is a vivid hue used in marketing to draw attention or as a call to action. Red also elicits emotions that are engaging, thrilling, and have a significant connection to increased appetite and sexuality.
Many strong, corporate brands incorporate red in their logo. Red exudes boldness and vigor and is great for capturing attention. Red also creates a sense of urgency and is great for impulse shopping. You’ll also find retailers using a lot of red during holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day to get shoppers in the spirit. Many companies in the art, media, technology, retail, and professional service industries also use red logos. Some of these include: Netflix, YouTube, and Time magazine.
Given that red is known to make people hungry, the McDonald’s logo is a great example of how restaurants use red in their branding and advertising to whet customers’ appetites.
Danger
Excitement
Power
Passion
Anger
Aggression
Energy
Hunger
Dominance
Warning
Confidence
Bold
Ambition
Leadership
Urgency
Love
Desire
Attention
Red personalities are unapologetically ambitious and self-assured. They prefer to be in charge and are not afraid to take risks. Red people can be aggressive and easily angered, quite often displaying a violent temper – this is negative passion and energy.
(Mūlādhāra)
The use of too much red can be strenuous on the eyes and should be used sparingly to avoid extreme negative reactions like fear or a sense of danger. When a website or marketing piece is predominantly red, the customer may see it as a cautionary message or warning rather than what the designer intended. Because red has the power to instantly capture attention, it is frequently utilized to alert people to approaching danger. For example: stop signs, sirens, fire engines, and red traffic lights.
Orange is a vibrant, energetic, and cheerful color that blends the vigor of red and the happiness of yellow. It is frequently associated with autumn and the fruit of the same name. Like red, it also stimulates your appetite and is used in food advertising. Orange increases oxygen to the brain, stimulating mental activity and creativity. This bright color exudes confidence, excitement, and courage.
Because of its fun nature, orange works well with non-corporate brands, toys, and food products. Orange is a high-energy color that many sports teams use in their branding, uniforms, and mascots. An orange logo conveys the message that your company is welcoming and upbeat. This makes it an excellent choice for brands that want to be perceived as lighthearted and not too serious, while remaining confident.
The color orange conveys that something is inexpensive but of reasonable quality. Orange branding works well for companies that want to express stellar customer service on a budget. Amazon’s logo is an excellent example of this.
Warmth
Instinct
Optimism
Spontaneity
Freedom
Confident
Impulse
Opportunity
Freedom
Fun
Creativity
Positivity
Enthusiasm
Lightheartedness
Friendly
Upbeat
Cheerful
Caution
People with orange color personality traits tend to be witty, spontaneous, generous, optimistic, eager and bold. They need fun, variety, stimulation and excitement.
(Svadhishthana)
Orange produces a warm feeling and is often associated with the sun. However, the color can have some not-so-sunny connotations. The color’s common negative connotations are crassness, rudeness, and frivolity. It appears that darker shades of orange have the most negative associations, such as untrustworthiness and deceitfulness.
Yellow is an energetic and vibrant color that makes you feel happy and spontaneous. It is associated with joy, hope, optimism, energy, and warmness of the sun. Yellow has been shown in studies to help increase Seratonin in the brain, which is essential for causing a happy mood. Yellow improves concentration and serves as a “wake-up call” for your brain and nervous system. High levels of yellow exposure, on the other hand, can cause fatigue, aggression and irritability, and make babies cry when placed in yellow-painted rooms.
Yellow signifies playfulness, amusement, curiosity and happiness making it an ideal color choice for advertising children’s products. Advertisers may use it to not only draw attention but also to evoke a sense of happiness.
Yellow is ideal for retail establishments because of how it stands out in a sea of other distractions competing for people’s attention. Examples of companies that use yellow in their branding are Best Buy, IKEA, and Nikon.
Bright
Cheerful
Warmth
Encouragement
Spontaneity
Energy
Positivity
Stimulating
Optimism
Confidence
Youthfulness
Loyalty
Hope
Egotism
Caution
Illness
Cowardice
Anxiety
For most people, yellow is seen as a bright and cheerful color. People with yellow personalities have illuminating and cheerful auras. They are fun, creative souls that like to keep small groups of friends around. Yellows are extroverted, informal, very optimistic and fast-paced thinkers always suggesting new ideas with imaginations that can sometimes run away with them.
(Manipura)
Most associations with yellow are positive emotions like happiness, excitement, originality, friendship, loyalty, joy, honor, intellect, optimism, enthusiasm, confidence, hope, and creativity. On the contrary, for centuries yellow would indicate jealousy, cowardice, egotism, betrayal, deceit, illness, caution and danger. Prominent figures from the late Middle Ages found guilty of treason were painted yellow.
The color green is associated with health, tranquility, money, new beginnings, possibilities, nature and is made from blue (security and trust) and yellow (happiness and youthfulness). Green is associated with refreshment, peace, rest, and security and evokes a sense of abundance. It is used in stores to relax customers and raise awareness of environmental issues. Green promotes mental harmony and balance, which leads to decisiveness. Starbucks is a well-known global brand with a green color scheme.
Green is often used to represent eco-friendly companies or businesses revolving around agriculture, recycling, landscaping, gardening and solar power. Green also symbolizes the continual awareness of mental health in order to help fight the stigma that is often associated with it. Because green is often associated with money, prosperity, and security, many financial companies use it in their branding. Some of the most well-known brands in the financial sector use green logos, such as Fidelity, TD Bank, and NerdWallet.
Green makes people feel optimistic and refreshed. In spiritual terms, green is symbolic of new beginnings, fertility, growth, good health, and other ideas connected with life, rebirth, and renewal.
Balance
Growth
Generosity
Restoration
Nature
Equilibrium
Harmony
Sanctuary
Clarity
Stability
Prosperity
Safety
Positivity
Health
Tranquility
Fertility
Peace
Abundance
Green personality types are perfectionists, analytical, conceptual, cool, calm, inventive, and logical. They seek knowledge and understanding, as well as explanations and answers. Greens can be excellent researchers, seeking facts and asking numerous questions.
(Anahata)
Though green is typically associated with positive emotions like renewal, harmony, optimism and hope, it can also have negative connotations like boredom, stagnation, blandness, jealousy, and illness.
Blue is a cool color that evokes feelings of calmness and spirituality as well as security and trust. Blue is associated with peace, water, tranquility, and reliability and offers a sense of security, curbs appetite, and stimulates productivity. While lighter shades of blue create a sense of serenity and relaxation, darker shades of blue are associated with masculinity, feelings of depth, expertise, authority, safety and stability.
The color blue is associated with intuition, imagination, trust, confidence, stability and intelligence and is used by many conservative brands in Corporate America and financial institutions. Blue would seem to be a safe color to use since one-third of the world’s top brands use it in their marketing.
The communication industry predominantly uses blue to promote a sense of clear communication, mental clarity, and precision. Blue represents well-being in the medical field, since it is frequently linked to cleanliness and health.
Freedom
Self Expression
Wisdom
Loyalty
Calmness
Peace
Cool
Corporate
Technology
Security
Trust
Control
Clarity
Determination
Ambition
Inspiration
Confidence
Finance
Blue is the color of spirituality, intuition, inspiration and inner peace. Those with blue personality traits tend to be enthusiastic, sympathetic, communicative, compassionate, idealistic, sincere and imaginative. They care and want to contribute to everything they are a part of. Relationships are important to blue personalities.
(Vishuddha)
Blue is a favorite color to promote a sense of serenity, contentment and spiritual development. Conversely, blue can also carry some negative connotations that can bring about a sense of coldness, aloofness, lack of emotion, unfriendliness. It is also associated with sadness and depression (the “blues” or “down in the dumps”).
Purple is often associated with imagination, spirituality, luxury, royalty, and the ability to get the creative juices flowing. Mystery, magic, wealth and spirituality are a few psychological connections people make with the color purple. It is a combination of the energy and power of red with the stability and reliability of blue, making it a perfect balance between the physical, spiritual, and realms of fantasy.
Purple is often used in pop culture because of its alleged ability to inspire, soothe tension, and foster creativity; making it an all-inclusive color for all ages, genders, and cultures among the masses. It is seen as an inspirational color that sparks the imagination and encourages people to think outside of the box and try new things.
Dark purples are associated with wealth and royalty and is often used to represent religious institutions and educational organizations. Light purples are soft and associated with spring and romance and are seen being used in beauty products. Purple is a color that Hallmark uses to help connect their brand with thoughts of luxury and sentiments of nostalgia.
Imagination
Intuition
Fantasy
Royalty
Wealth
Spirituality
Compassion
Mystery
Creativity
Unconventional
Psychic
Luxury
Religion
Compassion
Sensitivity
Deep
Inspiration
Romance
People with purple personality traits are creative and imaginative. Purple people are original, creative, and highly perceptive visionaries who have a strong interest in spirituality. Lovers of purple are said to be free-spirited, gentle, compassionate, understanding, supportive and superb judges of character with a need to participate in humanitarian issues. This person is the go-to for help, often thinking of others first but often feels taken advantage of. People are drawn to their introverted, yet charismatic and alluring energy.
(Ajna)
Purple is a color that conjures up ideas of strength, nobility, luxury, mystery, royalty, imagination, creativity, wisdom, and spirituality. Purple’s positive effects enlighten, inspire, uplift, and encourage. Purple’s darker connotations include decadence, conceit, and pomposity. Purple is also a mourning color, and negative traits associated with it include being oversensitive, arrogant, tainted, forbidden, dangerous, corrupt, vigilant, immature, or emotional.
It goes without saying that pink is a popular color for brands that primarily serve a female audience. Pink’s color meaning in color psychology is associated with femininity, playfulness, immaturity, love, and romance. In color psychology, pink’s color meaning revolves around femininity, playfulness, immaturity, love and romance. Lighter shades of pink represent sentimentality, romance, tenderness, care, and can calm emotional energies. Bright/Medium Pinks symbolize vitality, youthfulness, fun, excitement, strength and confidence. Dark Pinks can be associated with sophistication, eroticism, and seduction.
Eye-catching vivid pinks are used in advertising and marketing because of their attention-grabbing properties. Pink symbolizes youth, good health, and playfulness and is often used in product packaging for young girls.
Pink is also associated with sweetness, and is seen in logos for sweet foods like ice cream and donuts. “Sugar and spice and everything nice.” Pink is also used as the symbolic color of the movement to support breast cancer research. Pink is frequently used to bring about a sense of romance around holidays like Valentine’s Day.
Compassion
Love
Playful
Immaturity
Feminine
Beauty
Admiration
Fashion
Intuitive
Sensitive
Nurture
Assertive
Calm
Sweet
Warmth
Romance
Possibilities
Creativity
Pink personalities evoke a sense of being that are loving, kind, and sensitive people, often with strong nurturing and sensual sides. Their romantic outlook on life is said to have idealistic standards with a sweet, charming side that often makes them delicate and lovable individuals. Pink people have a universal love of oneself and of others.
(Sahasrāra)
Pink is a symbol of hope that is used to add female appeal. Pink has traditionally been associated with sensitivity, femininity, sweetness, and romance. While the calming effect of pink is positive, it is also associated with physical weakness, emotional neediness, and caution. It can represent a lack of self-worth, self-reliance and willpower, and can also indicate an overly emotional and cautious nature. Hot pink, on the other hand, has become synonymous with a more aggressive and rebellious attitude in the punk community. Pink has many socio-political connotations that have different meanings around the world, so do your research before making design decisions.
Brown is an earthy color created by mixing two complimentary or opposite colors. For example, mix red and green, yellow and purple, or blue and orange until it becomes a smooth brown with a yellowish or reddish hue. Psychologically, brown is associated with strength and stability, comfort and earthiness, maturity and reliability. Different shades of brown have different meanings. Light brown indicates honesty, kindness, health, warmth, and nature. Darker browns represent reliance, strength, humility, sadness, and depression.
Brown is the color of earth, wood and stone. So naturally, it should come as no surprise that the color association with brown in color psychology evokes a sense of comfort, security and a down-to-earth nature. In marketing, you’ll find that brown is often used for natural products and food. Brown is a popular branding color for baked goods and chocolate products.
Because of its “outdoorsy” feel, brown is often used in branding and marketing organic, wholesome, or all-natural products. Brown is also a popular color for outerwear and boots and perfectly encapsulates the rugged resourcefulness and rustic atmosphere of a luxury country home.
Brown personalities are empathetic, passionate, and confident motivational leaders that inspire people. They have wonderful friendships and prioritize stability and simplicity over material possessions. People with brown personalities are straightforward, goodhearted, and grounded individuals who have their feet firmly on the ground. To some people, they appear arrogant, but that’s not who they truly are. They simply have respect for themselves, have high self-esteem, and never let people push them around.
Reliability
Stability
Comfort
Honesty
Natural
Warmth
Agriculture
Earth
Resilience
Security
Safety
Structure
Solid
Organic
Dependable
Simple
Wholesome
Outdoorsy
Brown also increases serotonin levels, an essential chemical for mood regulation. That change in brain chemistry helps explain why brown often evokes such warm, soothing feelings. Brown is full of positive associations, including baking, chocolate, warmth, nature, and wildlife. Brown is the most used color in art, but is the least favorite color of the public; it is often associated with plainness, rust, feces, and poverty. Brown can often feel vast, stark, and empty – especially a diffused or muted shade of brown or if it’s used across a vast expanse. For example, an enormous desert can feel like a never-ending expanse of brown dullness, devoid of life or a hastily thrown-together sack lunch in a rumpled brown paper bag.
In color psychology, black is traditionally seen as a symbol of mystery, power, elegance, and sophistication. Black evokes strength, luxury, and elegance, but can also suggest simplicity, neutrality and professionalism. Black’s link to power can be an intimidating color that shows that the person wearing it is setting themselves apart from others and implies strength and discipline. Black isn’t typically the go-to color for expressing emotions, rather, it conceals them, giving the person in black an air of superiority, leadership, and authority. Black is bold, powerful and is often used to conjure up a sense of mystery.
Black has a timeless elegance and is the reason why it is a popular color used in fashion and retail. Many fashion retailers use black in their logos and branding because black elicits feelings of elegance, substance, and power. At times, black can be viewed as the epitome of chicness and sophistication, yet charged with eroticism. Almost 70% of women polled thought black evoked confidence, intelligence, and sexiness in a man. Black is also used in the marketing and branding of high-end, luxury, and elite items.
People with black personality traits tend to enjoy prestige and power. These people are often artistic and sensitive, but very independent and strong-willed individuals that like to be in control of themselves and their surroundings. Many artists wear black so the colors and details of their work stand out instead of what the artist is wearing. People with black personalities are inherently ambitious people that want to shield themselves from all the potential criticism and pain that can come with pursuing their dreams.
Power
Mystery
Fear
Strength
Death
Evil
Unknown
Sophistication
Authority
Control
Elegance
Discipline
Drama
Protection
Seductive
Secrecy
Confidence
Intelligence
Black isn’t your go-to color for expressing emotions. On the negative side, black is the hallmark color of death, grief, mourning, depression or sadness in Western cultures and why people wear black to funerals. Throughout history, black has been known to conjure notions of dark magic, villainy, war, evil, aggression, rebellion, fear and death. As the absence of light, many use the color black to symbolize all things negative and offer concealment for the most heinous of acts of crime. Evil reigns in darkness, and villains dress in black to escape into the shadows.
Grey is a popular neutral color between the darkness of black and the lightness of white. Gray is one of the most modest colors and the easiest on the eyes. Light gray is a soothing color that symbolizes neutrality, balance, and coolness. Medium gray represents expensiveness, technology, intelligence, and creativeness. Dark gray has a masculine nature and means seriousness, inflexibility, and suppression. Gray is used often because it goes with almost any color and is perfect for when you are going for a sleek modern look.
Gray is viewed as a sleek, chic, and sophisticated color and often associated with futurism and technology. Gray is a timeless classic color used in business to portray intelligence and sophistication, while also commonly found in urban environments. Gray is the most versatile and most popular of the neutral colors and a good match for other neutral shades and makes vibrant colors pop in contrast. Gray is a safe color and commonly used in office buildings and business attire. Business and logo examples include, Apple, Nestle and WordPress.
Gray personality types often feel indifferent about situations and are good at being impartial and unbiased. Gray personalities are often indecisive in their decision making and tend to avoid unnecessary risks. People with gray personality traits rule with their head over their emotions and are often aloof and emotionally detached. Grays seek out their own company and tend to lack energy and fade into the background in large group situations. Gray people sometimes lack energy and enthusiasm unless they are doing something they are really interested in.
Timeless
Maturity
Neutral
Practical
Conservative
Formal
Quiet
Rigid
Composure
Refined
Dignified
Understated
Elegant
Boring
Classic
Reflective
Urban
Chic
Gray has many positive traits, like security, tranquility, wisdom, sophistication, and liberalism. However, it’s not the most exciting color and is often associated with monotony, gloom, indifference, misery, disinterest, depression, isolation, sadness, coldness, and decay. Negative gray can sometimes evoke negative emotional connections with things like gloomy weather, old concrete buildings in urban environments, or smoke coming from old factories.
White is known to help people experience restfulness, openness, calm and joy. In color psychology, white evokes a sense of purity, balance, sophistication, efficiency and harmony. While white suggests calm and serenity, it is also refreshing. It purifies, simplifies and provides clarity for the mind. White is generally considered as uplifting because it offers a sense of quietness and mental organization. White is also symbolic of fresh starts and new beginnings, as well as completeness. White can also imply innocence, purity, virginity, goodness, safety.
In marketing and branding, white is used to convey a feeling of safety, purity, youth, class, efficiency, and cleanliness, as well as to create contrast. White is often chosen to evoke a sense of youth and modernity and is a choice by brands that want to convey a level of exclusivity and luxury. Throughout history, white has been associated with religion, royalty, innocence, freshness, and spirituality. The use of white in business can represent cleanliness and hygiene, especially in hospitals. Brands use white to portray an air of sophistication, peace, hope, success, and wealth. Famous brands that use white in their branding and logos include, Tesla, Mini, Cotton, and The North Face.
White personalities have the highest standards for cleanliness and hygiene. They are neat and orderly individuals who quickly become overwhelmed in a disorganized and congested environment, whether it be at work or home. White personality traits are frequently too critical because they have very high standards for both themselves and other people. At the core, white personalities are peaceful people, even tempered, accommodating, diplomatic, and logical thinkers.
Simple
Clean
Pure
Delicate
Innocent
Optimistic
Bright
Empty
Fresh
Light
Empowerment
Goodness
Flawless
Virtuous
Organized
Indifferent
Exclusive
Spiritual
White is a color that symbolizes calm, simplicity, cleanliness, sophistication, illumination, knowledge, and organization. Some of white’s negative connotations include detachment, sterility and disinterest. White can also seem stark, empty, sterile, cold, and isolated.
In conclusion, the use of color psychology in marketing can have a significant impact on how your brand is perceived and remembered by your target audience. By understanding the meanings and associations behind each color, considering cultural differences, and incorporating audience preferences, you can effectively use colors to your advantage in marketing initiatives. Ultimately, utilizing the power of colors can help you build a strong and influential brand that connects with your audience on a deeper level and drives business success.
Consumers base their purchasing decisions on emotional reactions and human behavior. Our brains form emotional connections with brands and the colors used in their marketing that make them easily recognizable. Marketing and design professionals can use that emotional response to help companies and organizations improve the success of their marketing and branding efforts.
I do believe all the ideas you’ve presented for your post. They are really convincing and will certainly work. Nonetheless, the posts are too short for novices. May just you please lengthen them a little from subsequent time? Thanks for the post.
Thanks for the feedback. It’s just a teaser for a book I’m working on… hoping to gain interest.
– Annette