Maybe you never noticed, but your favourite brands employ certain colour combinations in their marketing strategy and branding. May your favourite brand use the colours in their digital marketing services for enhancing the business value. They do not deflect much from a few specific basic colours they use. For instance, the use of green and white colours in marketing, branding and logo of Starbucks Coffee or yellow and red in Macca’s. These brands use the same colours over all the digital channels for online marketing or social media marketing. Have you ever imagined why are they so obsessed with a few colours in brands marketing when we have millions to choose from? Because of Colour Psychology, the science of employing colours influences attitude, behaviour, and decision-making.
It is a human tendency to judge a person, place, environment, and product by its initial look. Therefore, it is necessary to make a positive first impression of your product to a new customer. By employing a few specific colour schemes in their marketing, companies maintain brand identity consistency which helps them to create a long-lasting image of the brand in the minds of the consumers, while reading you find the most important information regarding the colours as mentioned in the following.
Colours can be one of the main reasons for the purchase of a product and can be the sole reason for not being able to sell a product as well. That is the reason that even traditional marketers have started shifting their digital marketing plan to specific branding colours. In this article, we discuss the colour theory and how to use colours in digital marketing to alter your brand’s personality, purchase intent and what colour combinations can be used to improve the likability of your brand.
HOW COLOURS INFLUENCE CUSTOMERS
Different colours affect customers’ emotions in different ways. Some can appear exciting and bold, some healthy and peaceful, some optimistic and some pessimistic. Color In-depth colour research suggests that colour has the biggest impact on a customer’s buying habits if they think the colour is right for that brand. It is true that 90% of consumers make impulsive decisions about a brand based on colour. Let’s have a look at how humans generally interpret different colours subconsciously and how those colours influence their decision making in the following table.
COLOUR | SIGNIFIES | BRANDS |
RED | The human brain interprets red as an aggressive colour. Something bold, trying to catch your attention. You will often see food and drinks brands in red colour. Coco-Cola or Red bull are examples for grabbing your attention even if they are in a corner aisle in a supermarket. The reason is the exciting, active and bold nature of the colour. It affects nerve impulses, heart rate and blood pressure creating a sense of urgency and this urgency are ideal for clearance sales. | Netflix, CNN, Target, Coke. |
GREEN | Nature, generosity, safety and balance are expressed through green colour. Brands like BP, TicTac, and Lacoste employ green colour icons to demonstrate their brands’ purpose. You can be any brand, offering any service, just employ colour green addressing any environmental issue in your digital marketing and see the wonders that it brings. | John Degree, Starbucks Coffee, Spotify |
BLUE | What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the colour blue? Water, Sky, or maybe jeans. It is the colour generally associated with productivity, calmness, maturity and a sense of space. Some of the social media giants like Facebook and Twitter are known for blue colour icons. Blue along with its shades is one of the most used digital marketing colours. | Ford, Intel, IBM, HP |
YELLOW | Colour Yellow signifies happiness, friendliness, confidence and optimism. It is rightly called the colour of positivity. It is one of those colours that will lengthier wavelength and therefore appropriate shade must be employed. You want to grab customers’ attention in a way that they don’t feel overpowered because excessive yellow can cause anxiety, self-esteem and fear. | Lays, Macca’s, |
ORANGE | Orange signifies communication and adventure. It uplifts your mood and energy, signifies gut reaction unlike the physical reaction of the colour red. Orange in itself can be considered as a combination of red and yellow, a secondary colour and its effects on the human brain are also similar to them. It gives a sense of comfort and relaxation. | SoundCloud, Fanta, Oranged |
VIOLET | Violet symbolises creativity and loyalty. Because of its aggressive nature like red, violet has the ability to grab customers’ attention. If you intend your customers to know about your brand, services or offers, adding a tagline with purple in the background can do wonders for you. Customers will read the text without realising, it was not the text but the background that grabbed their attention. Trying these strategies in email marketing results in 26% higher customer engagement. | Hallmark, Monster, Cadbury. |
PURPLE | Colour of trust and spirituality. It also signifies mystery and new ideas therefore also called the colour of creativity. You can demonstrate your luxury products by employing the colour since indigo creates a sense of luxury and magic. | Indigo, Tacobell, Aetna |
EFFECTS OF COLOURS IN DIGITAL MARKETING SERVICES
The use of different contrasting colors helps the viewer focus on a particular page element. Living determines the spirit of your design. Using bright colors in your design can make your user feel more dynamic and efficient while promoting the product, some other facts listed below:
- 93% of customers buy products based on their visual appearances.
- Colours increase in brand awareness by 80%.
- Blue is the favourite digital buying colour of 35% woman and 57% man.
- 62% of customers read your advertisement if they like the colour of your post.
- 52% of customers won’t return to a store if they don’t like aesthetics.
COLOURS SHOULD REPRESENT YOUR BRAND
Deciding on what colours to use in your brand icon or colours that signify your brand should be one of the initial steps when you are starting your business. It’s never too late though. Now that you have some knowledge of the nature of colours, decide on what are the few colours that reflect your brand and products. What smart blend or shades of colours you can employ to lure customers while marketing including digital media marketing, advertise your products and market without being lost in millions of advertisements.
It is totally dependent on the brand, products and data you want to advertise. Whether the data is sequential, qualitative or diverging. Once you have answers to these questions you can initiate working on the visuality of the products. The role of brightness and selection of colour should be according to the purpose. For instance, deciding on red colour if you are offering some sale is a good idea. The pink colour in baby products can be equally handy. Green is warm and inviting.
For example, Imagine receiving two online advertisements, one from a cake shop with a green theme and the other from an interior design firm with an environmental theme. Both are using the same green colour, but most of the people will not spend more than 3 seconds on the cake advertisement.
On the other hand, green colour themes can do wonders for an interior design firm and can hold your attention for quite along. The whole idea of digital marketing is to hold customers’ attention for as long as possible and proper use of colour and shades makes this possible.
BEST COLOUR OPTIONS FOR MARKETING
There is no best colour for marketing (advertising colors). It all depends on your brand products and services. Incorporate colours to market your brand in a way that you get settled in customers’ minds. For instance, the Google search engine employs four to five colours in the brand logo. Colours should convey your brand image and products without the customer reading what’s written on it.
Although the recommendation will still be to use shades of your logo, use of primary, secondary and tertiary colours, effective use of tones and tints, employing warm or cool colours depending on the advertisement, high or low contrast and complementary colours. Use contrast to reduce strain on customers eyes so they can focus on the product.
CONCLUSION
A major part of marketing is creating brand awareness and grabbing customers’ attention for as long as possible. Incorporating colors that signify your services and products serve this purpose. You don’t need tons of designers working on it. Understanding the psychology of colors , how to use colors in advertising and bringing it into action will have a tremendous positive impact on your business.
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Hi, we are an Australian digital agency doing groundbreaking work to help a business like yours reach its full potential. My only question is will you qualify for our services?
