Hidden Messages Your Brand Colors May Be Sending
If you’re serious about your brand’s reputation, it’s in your best interest to consult with designers and marketing experts about what hidden messages your brand’s colors might send your audience. It’s imperative to have your brand ethos and key messages locked down before you move onto developing or updating your visual identity. Is your brand playful or informative? Energetic or subtle? Young or sophisticated? Determining which characteristics best represent your brand will help you avoid a common mistake: choosing your brand colors based on nothing more than someone’s arbitrary decision about what looks nice. If you’re serious about your reputation, it’s time to think about the hidden messages your brand colors are sending. If you haven’t already, your team should define the values and characteristics of your brand, and then determine which of them is imperative to represent through your visual identity. We’re diving into what brand colors mean for your business and your reputation. Now is the time to ask yourself, what do your brand colors say about your company? Could your brand colors be sending your audience hidden messages? We know choosing a color palette and designing a logo are not the only steps needed to create a strong brand identity, but they are important steps nonetheless and shouldn’t be glossed over. For this reason, your brand identity needs to be pretty well buttoned up. Your brand identity should help inform your business model and marketing strategy. This means your brand logo and color palette can make or break a consumer’s decision to engage with your brand or become a customer. In fact, people make subconscious decisions about products and environments within the first 90 seconds of exposure, and it is estimated that 62-90 percent of this subconscious assessment is based on color alone. Whether you’re aware of it or not, your brand’s colors are sending subliminal messages to consumers. Choosing the right colors means so much more than determining what looks best. These examples alone highlight the importance of choosing the right colors for your brand. If you didn’t see white tables displaying shiny products at the Apple store, you might turn around and check whether you’re in the right place.
If you walked into a Target store and saw splashes of blue or green on the walls, you’d likely be confused. Big-name brands are often synonymous with their color palettes. When you think Target, you probably think red.