The Psychology of Colour
This is where branding comes in. The use of colours to market yourself in the correct way is key when trying to convey the right message and tone about yourself to your audience.
Colour plays a part in influencing people’s opinions about products and services, whether they’re aware of it or not. This is because the strategic use of colour can be used to enhance a customer’s mood and actions because of the psychological influence the colour has on the viewer’s mind. It’s why the most successful companies in the world have spent, and continue to spend, millions of pounds on branding research with a particular focus on colour, analysing target markets and trends in relation to how people perceive colour when it comes to brands and products.
You may or may not know that certain colours are subconsciously associated with moods and feeling and can have a real influence on people’s decision making.
Below you can find out the emotions that the most popular colours evoke in people.
It can symoblise danger, war and love but also has links to boldness, excitement and youth meaning that you have to be very strategic when using it for your brand – you don’t want to convey the wrong message.
Its vibrancy and friendliness is more of an invitation than a direct call to action, although because it can create emotions of cheerfulness and enthusiasm it’s a great colour for getting people to subscribe to something, to sell products or follow something like a social media account.
It’s not a surprise that businesses who want to be seen to care for their customers or subscribers use blue throughout their marketing too; think Twitter, Facebook and Vimeo.
Blue also has a very calming influence so feel free to use it heavily in your branding.
It’s a refreshing and relaxing colour, creating feelings of tranquillity and inspiration and therefore it represents balance and harmony when applied to a design.
It’s also a very good colour to be used if you want to stand out from the crowd as, like red, it can split opinions; it definitely catches the eye though.
The colour also represents balance and neutrality making it the perfect colour if you want to exude calmness and professionalism.
Vibrant, hot pinks have a sense of fun and energy, lending the colour to trendy products for young women or girls – however they’re being used with increasing regularity in saturated markets, providing an impact and adding a punch of brightness with the intention of standing out.