Let’s talk colors today. Color psychology has become a more intensive and informed topic these days than it ever was. Yet we are prey to this not-so-hidden marketing strategy. Our cute little walnuts on the top floor of our body are wired to react in a certain way that makes us behave quite impulsively. *many of us are not quite proud of it, but I know it happened* Believe me, as I write this article, even I know I am craving some fried chicken from KFC. But I gotta stay strong for you guys, right? Otherwise, we might never see this article hahaha.
Why study color psychology?
Colors believe it or not influence our decision-making process and how our brain reacts to our environment. Think about it this way, children and many adults to date cannot resist passing through a junk food eatery even though they only to eat a few bites of it. All because of color psychology so the next time you crave something ask yourself if you really want it or just your brain reacting to a stimulus? We know that if I am passing a McDonald’s, I will take the burger, fries, and a cold drink to go anyhow like most of you!
Brands have these colors in their logos in the majority:
Red- KFC, Mcdonald’s, Pinterest, Cocacola, Youtube, Burger King, Times Of India, Puma, Ferrari, Zomato
Orange- Fanta, Harley Davidson, Home Depot
Yellow- Lay’s, Best Buy, Ikea, Nikon, Denny’s, Maggie
Pink- Dunkin Donuts, Lyft, Barbie, Pink, Claire’s, Cosmopolitan, Victoria’s Secret, Nykaa
Green- Starbucks, Spotify, Tropicana, Whole Foods, Fiverr, Seven-eleven, Shopify, Whatsapp
Blue- Baskin Robins, Skype, Facebook, Visa, Dell, Intel, IBM, Hp, Paypal, BMW, Gap, Twitter, WordPress, Hindustan Unilever, Oreo
Violet- Cadbury, FedEx, Yahoo!, Hallmark, Milka, Twitch
White- Nike, Adidas, Apple
Black- Audi, Mercedes, Jaguar, Ups
Brown- M&M, LV, Hershey’s, J.P Morgan
Do you see a pattern here? Well, let me show you anyway. 90% of the food brands mentioned above use the color RED and social media or tech companies use BLUE. Let’s understand why.
Meanwhile, red as a color mainly signifies danger and warnings it also represents also love and passion. Red is a nonverbal sign of danger and interestingly enough is used by all food eateries in their logos.
Since red signifies urgency, leads to impulsive decisions. When you see this color, your body reacts as if in panic and leads to a fight or flight response. This color is also known to increase the heart rate and is considered to be one of the brightest colors.
Due to the impulsiveness caused by this color, brands attract you to think less and act more. This means that rationality has flown out the window and you are more vulnerable to their marketing tricks. This ultimately means that you spend more than you intend to.
Have you ever been able to successfully close a food delivery app such as Zomato without browsing or ordering something? Even if you don’t order, you keep thinking about it all day and eventually give in! That is exactly what they want.
Yellow signifies youth, joy, happiness, caution, and cowardness. Therefore choosing this color in the logo is a very big risk. It is a very big gamble which can either reap great benefits or lose the interest of the audience in a second.
Snapchat took the gamble and is highly rewarded for the same. Can you imagine Snapchat in any other color? No right? This is so because Snapchat has quite skillfully used color to its benefit. It is so because this color signifies warmth, happiness, and cheerfulness; it appeals to our inner child and childhood memories. Therefore we keep going back to this app to communicate with our friends using the filters. Honest question, how many times did you use the babyface filter? Makes a little more sense now, doesn’t it?
Orange represents warmth, increases interest and innovation. Well, that’s news to all Fanta lovers, right? As soon as you see an advertisement for a celebrity drinking Fanta don’t you feel like having it too? Well, because the brand has successfully used the color orange to stimulate your interest and curiosity in children. I know many of you have mixed food coloring with soda and pretended to be in the advertisement itself;)
This color fosters creativity, gives comfort to people while being vibrant enough to catch their attention, increases interest, and stimulates appetite. Please don’t fall into this trap and drink too much sugar!
Pink is associated with sweetness, playfulness, feminity, and romance. It is used by companies related to the better health of customers. Due to the color being so vibrant in itself, it is being used in sweets and candies (such as donuts) which appeals to women as sweets leading to more attention by females. Pink has been used again and again to raise awareness regarding breast cancer by all entities. But why? Pink has been associated with femininity because it represents childhood and softness which were necessary qualities of a girl. Another reason why this happened is that blue and pink were one of the most initial dyes that did not fade with washes. In Japan, pink was a color that was initially used by men.
Green is associated with eco-friendly, healthy, and relaxed. It is mostly used by eco-friendly companies to promote their sustainability goals. Meanwhile, this color is also used by spas and companies that promote relaxation.
It makes us think about growth but can also be negatively perceived in accordance with materialism, envy, and possessiveness. It can be said that the color should be taken mindfully. It does make us think about brands such as Spotify, Carlsberg, and Tropicana. But it can be seen that many food production companies use this color.
Blue represents serenity, calmness, loyalty, and professionalism. IT companies use this color to gain their customer’s trust and create a sense of loyalty among them. Almost all the IT companies’ logos have blue and there is barely an exception to this case. Don’t you love going to the sea or beach? Doesn’t it have a very calming effect on you? Businesses want to create a similar calming and secure effect on their clients. They are usually used by marketing, advertising, and IT companies. This color helps increase productivity and is a high-energy and exciting color. Don’t you want to feel secure while using your laptop, phone, or any software? This is exactly why you become more trusting towards IT companies with a blue logo!
Violet represents courage, leadership, royalty, wealth, and dreams. This color is seen in a negative light quite sometimes due to its ties with the rich. The reason why violet is associated with wealth is that the dye violet was very expensive because it could be grown only once on a patch of land, making the land barren. It is also seen that violet is women's second favorite color and therefore, used to create relationships with females. In today’s time, who doesn’t want wealth and riches? Using this to the brand’s advantage, middle-class people are targeted and this indicates growth prospects.
White is a representative of calmness, hygiene, purity, cleanliness, and youth. It also represents exclusivity, sophistication, and elegance which are all indicators of success. Another reason why luxury brands like to use this color in the logo.
Black is a statement color. It has redefined elegance, substance, power, and dominance.
It creates a sense of authority and wealth that everyone wants to achieve. It is a symbol of luxury and dominance. Everyone strives to be independent and millionaire, right? We don’t want to live off our parents’ money all our lives, or do we? Black is like a staple to all luxury symbols and therefore used by companies such as Audi, Mercedes, and Jaguar.
The color brown is often associated with wholesomeness, warmth, honesty, and security. Maybe that explains why we love chocolate? But we love chocolate despite its color, right?
Anyway, brown gives a sense of reliability and is usually associated with organic, wholesome yet sophisticated products. It is used by brands such as Hershey’s, LV, J.P Morgan, and M&Ms. LV is definitely one of the more posh brands right? The downside to this color is that when used in a larger surface area, it is appealing to loneliness and insecurities. Have you ever had chocolate when you were super happy? Majority of the time we look for chocolate when we are lonely right? Explains a lot, doesn’t it?
Feeling enlightened about the brand color strategy and how color psychology plays a major role? If you enjoyed reading this post, share it with others!
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