The Significance of Your Brand Colors

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“Sometimes I imagine colors as if they were living ideas, being of pure reason with which to communicate.” Paul Cézanne. Those words are true. Colors are used to communicate all kinds of ideas and feelings. They connect you to others.

When it comes to your online presence, which includes your website and logo, you need to be very careful about the colors that you choose. The colors must serve as unspoken communication about what you and your business are and what you are trying to accomplish. If you don’t choose your brand colors wisely, it can ruin the credibility of your business and can devastate your business.

You want your colors to communicate peace and professionalism. If you don’t have colors in your branding that feel that way to other people, they won’t stay with you long enough to find out what you are offering and what you can do for them. The colors that you choose are as important as the words that you impart.

There are many questions that should come to mind as you are considering which colors you want for your business. Knowing to ask the right questions and being able to come up with answers to those questions will really help you to cement your business’s image.

  • Should the colors of your website and of your logo be the same?
  • What happens with the colors if you already have a website and add a logo later?
  • In that case, should you change the website colors to match the logo once you have it in place or should you match your logo to your website?

Research

It is important to have a cohesive and fluid idea when it comes to your web presence and colors. If you choose not to have the same color throughout, you must at least have colors that complement each other. If you create a website and a logo using the identical colors, you may have some difficulties later on. It is a good idea to do some extensive research before you choose your final colors. That research includes looking critically at several color combinations in the context of your web design, layout and colors. Remember that you need to keep your target audience in mind when considering colors for your brand. The colors that you choose will be on all of your branding and you need to be absolutely certain that you have chosen colors that make a statement about who you are and what your business represents.

Colors: what do they mean?

When choosing your brand colors, it is critical to understand what the colors mean and then you can appropriately choose the best colors to highlight your business and to attract people to your brand.

  • Blue: Tranquility, acceptance, love, understanding, patience, cooperation, security, loyalty, and comfort
     
  • Orange: Courage, confidence, friendliness, cheerfulness, warmth, excitement and energy
     
  • Yellow: Caution, intelligence, brightness, joy and organization
     
  • Purple: Royalty, religion and sophistication
     
  • Green: Money, sharing, soothing, responsiveness, health, food, nature, growth and freshness
     
  • Red: Strength, leadership, love
     
  • Brown: Durability, earthiness, primitive
     
  • White: Purity, ease, freshness, goodness and cleanliness
     
  • Black: Dramatic, committed, classy and serious

The next thing that you need to do when it comes to choosing the colors for your brand is to figure out exactly how you and your business want to be perceived. People will see your brand and they will relate to it in a very personal way. People always react on an emotional level. If you are able to connect with them, they will be interested in learning more.

Conclusion

It is really fascinating to think that people react to many things in life (and business) on a subliminal level. People don’t realize that colors are chosen very carefully to invoke specific reactions. There is a true scientific approach to it but all people know is that it makes them feel a certain way.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team.

Author

  • Carolyn Cohn

    Carolyn Cohn is the Co-Founder & Chief Creative Services of CompuKol Communications. Carolyn manages CompuKol’s creative and editorial department, which consists of writers and editors. Her weekly blogs are syndicated globally. She has decades of editorial experience in online editing, and editing books, journal articles, abstracts, and promotional and educational materials. Carolyn earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo.

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17 Responses

  1. Ferry van der Vorst says:

    One note of caution: Colors mean different things in different countries.

  2. Nikhil Malhotra says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Web Developer & Graphic Designer
    Discussion: The Significance of Your Brand Colors

    I absolutely agree on that.I believe colors show us different emotions. They make one happy, exited, warm, friendly, relaxed, and comfortable. That’s why we should carefully plan the use of colors while designing a website.

    Posted by Nikhil Malhotra

  3. Rasmus Roiha says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Social Media & Community 2.0
    Discussion: The Significance of Your Brand Colors

    Interesting opinion. How about the different cultures? I would have to say that a colour has different indications and reflections depending on in which culture you use it. So even if I partly agree with the article, I find it too simplified.
    Posted by Rasmus Roiha

  4. meenakshi venkatraman says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Writers
    Discussion: The Significance of Your Brand Colors

    Yes.Every color has got a band length and depending upon that only they are used in different environments.You might have observed that Hospitals prefer white and light blue color only.
    Posted by meenakshi venkatraman

  5. Antoaneta Denkin says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Web Design and Development in 21st century
    Discussion: The Significance of Your Brand Colors

    Colors are abstract subjective endless emotions for everyone.
    This is the beauty of them.
    Posted by Antoaneta Denkin

  6. Rose Kimball says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: VERIZON CONNECTIONS
    Discussion: The Significance of Your Brand Colors

    I didn't realize how much a color or colors can impact your business. But in thinking about it, does this also impact us on our own individual branding? So perhaps the next time I create a slide or powerpoint presentation, I am going to think about my audience, MY customers, and what message I want to send.
    Posted by Rose Kimball

  7. Richard Danca says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Writing and Editing Professionals
    Discussion: The Significance of Your Brand Colors

    I'm not sure I agree with the premise of your article. Yes, blue is tranquil (or sad!) and an angry person sees red. I'm not sure how far that goes, however.

    Years ago I worked as a usability person, partly responsible for the design of the company's many web sites. As part of a study we did at a computer show/conference in NYC we asked a bunch of people to identify the colors that represent big computer companies. No one had trouble remembering IBM as Big Blue, but no one knew that Compaq featured dark red or remembered the color schemes of other major companies, even though if they looked up from our booth they could see the Compaq booth and many others.

    Maybe the colors affected people subliminally but this small study hints that maybe the effects of colors are not something people think about/notice.

    Just a thought.
    Posted by Richard Danca

  8. April Michelle Davis says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Writing and Editing Professionals
    Discussion: The Significance of Your Brand Colors

    Last year, I had my website redesigned and my company rebranded. We discussed the importance of colors and selected the colors that best reflected our personality and what we did. Colors are extremely important. Clients feel your colors when thinking about your company.
    Posted by April Michelle Davis

  9. Leif Anderson says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Medical/Healthcare Communications, Medical Education, Pharma Advertising & Marketing Professionals
    Discussion: The Significance of Your Brand Colors

    At one pharma advertising agency in the 1990s, the color was yellowish green for all products (to be jazzy and catch attention). I got interested in color (though a copywriter not an art director) and found a dozen or more books on the subject, all contradictory but all showing that it was ensembles of two or three or more colors that could be assigned personalities. Leif
    Posted by Leif Anderson

  10. Jess Lala says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: AOL Small Business
    Discussion: The Significance of Your Brand Colors

    Colors convey emotions. They are capable of instilling safety, danger or peace, If you use a poor color scheme for your brand, web site, campaign or office you could scare prospective clients away.

    On the other hand, a good color scheme surely leads clients into buying your products or services. Indeed, an acceptable color design for your brand, site, office, printed materials, and other items should reflect professionalism, integrity, order, peace and simplicity.

    Posted by Jess Lala

  11. Dana Webster says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Medical/Healthcare Communications, Medical Education, Pharma Advertising & Marketing Professionals
    Discussion: The Significance of Your Brand Colors

    I posted a question about colors on a Mommy website the other day as they're our target demographic on the DTC side of our branding. The answers were all over the place and largely contradicted my own feelings as a mother with 2 small kids who may one day need our product. I don't know how emblematic the respondants were to the general public, but I believe strongly that colors in branding can make a huge difference.

    We had a competitor in the diabetes space that made our branding look amateur when they launched with vibrant, eye-catching colors (fuscia, chartreuse, etc). Side by side, we were completely lost to their selections.
    Posted by Dana Webster

  12. Amanda Vega says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: All About ROI
    Discussion: The Significance of Your Brand Colors

    We were very clear when choosing red and black as our colors. Unlike most that want to pretend to nice and fluffy and the like, we are clear that we are sharp, abrasive, and egotistical – all for a reason. And red/black scream this.
    Posted by Amanda Vega

  13. Deborah Eade says:

    As many contributors have pointed out, different cultures respond differently to particular colours. Fashion is another consideration – so some colour combinations will date quite quickly, to say nothing of the fact that some also have political connotations.  
    In other words, it's far more complex than suggested in the article.
     

  14. James says:

    Intriguing article.  I think it's very important to choose the proper colors for your logo/brand as well as website so that they promote your business properly.  Having colors that work well together goes a long way in helping the user/potential client see you the way you intend.

  15. Scott Jones says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Medical/Healthcare Communications, Medical Education, Pharma Advertising & Marketing Professionals
    Discussion: The Significance of Your Brand Colors

    Certainly the color you choose is one of the key branding decisions you must make. Colors help identify the brand and become associated with other aspects of your brand. The attached link will shed further light on this topic for you: http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/branding/imageandbrandingcolumnistjohnwilliams/article175428.html
    Posted by Scott Jones

  16. Subhashree Panigrahi says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Writers
    Discussion: The Significance of Your Brand Colors

    you are correct crolyn, colours are to connect the core…
    Posted by Subhashree Panigrahi

  17. joy clarkson says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: For Women Entrepreneurs
    Discussion: The Significance of Your Brand Colors

    I totally agree with the concept that colours speak. Well maybe everyone wouldn't know how to interpret a colour but colours do communicate through visual senses. They impart certain feelings of receptiveness or dislike etc. While looking for my firm's colours I went through the chart and chose those that would represent what we stand for. Our colours are blue, orange and white.
    Posted by joy clarkson