The Power of Color in Branding

Back in the ’70s I was a graduate student in psychology. One of the areas I was really interested in was the power of colors to elicit emotion. Unfortunately, there weren’t any real studies on this at the time. But in the years since, a lot of work has been done in exploring the relationship between color and emotion.

Research shows that 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text.

Color is a critical element in your branding. When color is used correctly, it can add a tremendous impact to your logo and to your web site’s objective. When used incorrectly, you can lose your visitors faster than they arrived. Regardless of what your left brain may tell you, color symbolizes and triggers emotions, memories and ideas or thoughts without you even realizing it. This is especially critical on the web, simply because the next website is only one mouse-click away.

The emotion triggered by color is dependent on nationality, past experiences, and sometimes personal preference. However studies have shown that specific colors and combinations can effect the majority of people regardless of their culture or past.

The colors of your brand

Our corporate brands are easily distinguished by their colors. Would McDonald’s arches work as well if they were purple? What if an airline chose Jet Red instead of Jet Blue? As marketers, it’s important to think about how we utilize colors and what those colors say about our company.

Marketo has simplified the results of lot of research with the infographic below. (Click on the infograohic to see it on a separate page.)

What does your choice of colors say about your brand? Are the colors you chose sending the right message to your prospects and customers?