Show your “true colours” to your customers

It has long been recognised that certain colours can invoke certain emotions in people.

Some colours automatically convey an instant importance such as the colour red which grabs attention or can warn you to stop performing a particular action (traffic signs, no smoking, and danger). Other colours can be associated with an emotion: orange conveys a feeling of warmth whilst blue can exude a feeling of tranquillity. These feelings and emotions have been ingrained into human psyche and we can feel them without even acknowledging that we do.

What most people may not be aware of is that colour can be and is used in brand marketing and design to incite the same type of reactions. Can you imagine an all-action brand like Red Bull using any other colours than red and yellow? Would you feel the same emotion if they used a combination of blue and grey? Not a chance.

The possibilities of how colour psychology can be used in everyday marketing are endless. A couple of suggestions could be:

• Paint your office
• Using images in your materials that include plenty of the colour you are trying to convey.
• Vary your text to include colours.
• Weave your colour throughout all your branding materials.

What about in your website design and content layout?

Colour can be used to significant effect to drive customers into making decisions whilst visiting and interacting with your site. Your Call to Action must be in colours that incite some form of reaction from the site visitor. Your branding needs to be created to invoke the same feelings as done so successfully by the brands in the infographic above. Your content presentation needs the same level of attention too – too often a site is “let down” by poorly implemented content layout.

To avoid mismatching of colours and the wrong colours being used, make sure your designers have been fully and clearly briefed on:

• your business’ mission statement.
• why you do what do.
• what your business wants to be known for.
• who is your target audience.

While you are in discussions with your designer, ensure that they are acutely aware of the appropriate colour choices for your brand and business.