Simple tips and tricks to pick the right colours for your brand

James Birch

When producing fabric
banner stands one of the essential decisions is the selection of the brand
colours.  It may be just a background to
your exhibition stand or your key speaker; however, the colours in this banner
stand should speak of your company values. 
This same colour should travel across your company assets, whether it is
the website, the packaging or at the top of your letters.

Research shows that 85% of consumers believe the colour is
the biggest motivator when choosing a product. 
92% say the visual appearance is a significant factor in a marketing
campaign.

But how do you select the right colours for your brand? If
it is so vital to the presence of your company in the market, how can you make
sure you get it entirely right?

Understand your focus

All the brands you remember didn't come across the colour by
chance.  Coca Cola chose red because it
was energetic and vibrant and matched the ethos of the brand.  They had a clear idea of the goals of the
brand, and they knew their target audience. 
They needed a vibrant primary colour as most of the customers were going
to be young.

Therefore, an important starting point when choosing your
brand colour is to be clear on your company ethos. 

It is a psychological game

Imagine logos from some of the top tech companies.  IBM, Facebook, HP and Intel are all
surprisingly similar.  There is a blue
lettering on a white background.  This
suggests there is some smart thinking behind this choice that works in the mind
of the customer.  Blue is a relatively
passive colour.  It is often used when
selling a tool that is actively used by the client.  Also, blue has connotations of freedom,
trust, progress and intelligence.

You might think this is an issue of chicken and egg.  Tech companies favour blue and white,
therefore the connotation of the colour links to the history of its use.  As people link blue with Facebook and HP,
other companies step on the coattails of these more prominent companies – and
why wouldn't you?

Understanding colour
psychology can help you evoke emotion in your customer.  On a basic level, here is what some of the
colours might suggest to your audience:

  • Red – excitement and passion
  • Blue – technology and trust
  • Orange – energy and active
  • Purple – creativity and individuality
  • Yellow – optimism
  • Pink – romance and happiness
  • Green – nature
  • Black – luxury and sophistication

If you are trying to inspire an ethos of calm and
responsibility, you would want to choose blue or green. However, if you're
going to appear more energetic and creative, then reds and purples would be a
great choice.  Take a look at how many
chemical brands use the colour green – to persuade us that this is a product friendly
to nature.

Experiment!

Although consistency is a cornerstone of branding, sometimes
genius comes from doing something unusual and different.  The unexpected move can raise your choice as
a talking point.  Look at Heinz who
release green ketchup and increased sales by a record for the brand.  Think about the knowledge of the customer;
this shows – kids love ketchup – kids love goo… goo is green, make ketchup
green too.

Once you hit upon your colour, you need to stick with it.
However, there will come moments when you want to experiment with your colour
palette.

Analyse your rivals

Before you settle on your brand colour, look at what your
competition is doing.  You need to see
what they do with their brand for two reasons: you need to compete, and you
need to stand out.  You don't want to go
against your brand ethos just to avoid clashing with your competitor. You
equally do not want precisely the same tone. 
You need to find your unique combination.

Create a mood board

A final tip is to those who are still looking to create a
company colour scheme.  You can
experiment with your palette by creating a mood board.  This is a tool for discovering the exact
shade you want.  You will place multiple
colours together that will give you an idea about the mood and emotion you can
evoke.  The suggested ratio is 60:30:10.
Your brand colour should be 60% one colour, 30% a second colour and 10% of an
accent colour.

This is an exciting process, as you are working on your
company identity.  Do not skimp on your
attention to colour.

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