When it comes to establishing a brand identity, choosing the right colours and creating a consistent brand colour palette across all your print products is crucial. A consistent brand colour palette is a key component of marketing. Colour is an important consideration when creating your company’s branding and logo. Because one of the first things your target audience notices is colour, which has a big impact on how they behave as customers.
In this article, we’ll explore the basics of how to choose brand colours, the importance of a consistent brand colour palette, and the deeper implications of brand colour psychology.
Contents
Brand Colour Is More Than Just Aesthetics
Before choosing your brand colours, understand that they’re much more than just visual appeals. They contribute to how customers perceive your brand, determining whether they feel trust, excitement, or comfort when they encounter your brand’s visuals. Colours are an excellent way to identify your brand, and they should be associated with it.
Determining Your Brand’s Identity
The first thing you need to know when choosing brand colours is to understand your brand’s identity. What is your brand’s personality? Is it formal or fun, conservative or revolutionary, elegant or typical? Next, consider your target market, their interests, and the state of mind that will allow them to interact with your brand and products.
Consider how you want to be perceived. For instance, a youthful, innovative tech company may choose bold, vibrant colours to stand out in the traditional market, while a luxury fashion brand may opt for black, gold, or other colours associated with elegance and sophistication.
Industry Expectations
Another crucial consideration is your industry’s expectations. For instance, many finance or medical companies use blue in their logos because it’s often associated with trust and stability. On the other hand, food and beverage brands usually opt for warm brand colours like red, orange, and yellow because these colours stimulate appetite. You should therefore pick colours that seem genuine and suitable for the context of your particular industry.
A Cohesive Brand Story
It’s not just choosing a single colour or two. Brands often have a branding colour palette—a collection of primary and secondary colours. The primary colours do the heavy lifting, often being predominant in logo design, while the secondary colours complement, bringing depth and flexibility to visual identity. This palette helps in creating a harmonious and cohesive visual experience. Colours serve as a visual voice that tells consumers about your brand’s history, character, and principles before they ever read a word.
Make an effort to stand out
Find the most popular colours in your industry by conducting a competitive audit and surveying rivals. Look for ways to differentiate yourself from the competition and pick a brand colour that makes a statement and makes your brand memorable.
Brand Colours Psychology
Understanding colour psychology is crucial when choosing your brand’s colours. Let’s look into the primary brand colour meanings of various colours:
- Red: Excitement, passion, vitality. Brands that want to evoke these feelings often utilize this powerful and attention-grabbing colour.
- Blue: Stability, trust, calm. Brands that want to instill a sense of trust and calm in their audience typically use varying shades of blue.
- Green: Health, tranquillity, power. Green is perfect for wellness and outdoor brands that want to project a sense of peace and natural wellness.
- Yellow: Happiness, optimism, creativity. Ideal for brands wanting to demonstrate a sense of positivity and a sunshine-like experience.
- Black: Luxury, elegance, mystery. Brands in premium or luxury industries use black to evoke a sense of sophistication and exclusiveness.
- Purple: Spirituality, luxury, inspiration. Often associated with creativity and lavishness, it’s used by brands that want their customers to feel inspired or pampered.
Implementing Your Brand Colours
After choosing your brand colours and having a brand colour palette, start implementing them across all facets of your brand. They should be seen on your packaging, website, social media profiles, print materials, and even your office aesthetics! The goal is to create a consistent brand colour and visually pleasing experience that stands out.
Primary, secondary, and accent colours
You can use an effective rule of 60-30-10, which means 60% of the colour should be primary, 30% should be secondary, and 10% should be accented. The primary colour is the most noticeable and fundamental colour that embodies the essence of the brand, while secondary colours provide harmony and adaptability to the primary colour. Accent colours are vivid, eye-catching ones that are used selectively to draw attention to particular elements or highlight important information.
By strategically employing these colour types to direct the audience’s eye and convey brand messages, a well-defined brand colour palette helps in the creation of a unified and powerful brand identity.
Create Consistent Brand Colour
Consistency is key in brand awareness. Use the same set of colours across all your print marketing materials and digital platforms. This isn’t about monotony but rather about fostering a sense of familiarity and continuity. The aim is to ensure that, within a few encounters, customers can identify your brand by merely seeing your brand colours.
You can strengthen brand recognition and create a memorable visual identity by employing the same colours consistently throughout all touchpoints. Verify that your colours are conveying the intended message by testing them and getting input from your target audience. If necessary, make adjustments. Utilize your brand’s colours in your packaging, email marketing, social media graphics, logo, website, and other marketing collateral.
Create Colour Brand Palette
Keep a record of your palette to ensure consistent brand colour. To guarantee uniformity, keep a record of the colours you have selected, along with their precise hex codes or CMYK positions. Give your team access to this colour palette. Ensure that all members of your team are aware of the proper usage of the colours.
Conclusion
Understanding how to pick brand colours isn’t just about personal preferences but involves understanding your brand’s personality, industry norms, and colour psychology. A carefully selected brand colour palette is not merely an aesthetic choice but a tool that subtly yet effectively communicates the ideals and emotions behind your brand. Even something as basic as a colour can help you establish a recognizable brand in the minds of your customers.
If you need consulting with experts, you can always count on ButterflyGP.com‘s professional team with more than two decades of experience in the wholesale printing industry to guarantee perfection and consistency in your print marketing materials.