If you are building a brand from scratch or rebranding, how do you choose a color that will dominate your communications from logo, website, and beyond?
- Start with the competitive landscape. If your three major competitors use red, blue, and grey, you want to pick something that they aren’t using. Sometimes, if you are an established brand with a major competitor, you pick the opposite. (Coke = Red, Pepsi + Blue) Campbells = Red, Progresso = Blue)
- Is there something about your geography, promise, your benefits, or your point of differentiation, that leads you toward a particular palette of colors? Made in America leads you to red, white, and blue. But maybe made in Florida leads you to Orange, even if you aren’t in the food or juice business.
- What is the feeling you want to convey when someone engages with your brand? Strength, warmth, intellect, luxury, laughter, etc. Orange can be warm, cheerful, and inviting, while Red can mean exciting, youthful, and active. Check out the color wheel to see how brands convey and connect with keywords that may be part of your brand story.
How to Pick A Color
Graphic artists, designers, and illustrators can guide you in this process, but the dominant color for a brand is a meaningful choice that unconsciously will set the tone for your image. Like brand archetypes, there is a subconscious level that color will communicate to customers and clients. Be intentional and thoughtful as you make the decision of what color to choose.
A simple exercise
When I’m picking a dominant brand color, I like to get a swath of fabric in the primary dominant colors I’m considering. Then I’ll spend a few minutes holding one color cloth and then, close my eyes for a few minutes to see what images are conjured up. How do I feel, what am I thinking about, what direction does it take me?
If I have narrowed down to just a few colors, one will emerge that feels right. The color decision is an emotional, non-rational exercise, not something data-driven.
Color me curious.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com The conversation is free, and we can explore working together.
Graphic courtesy of Edmundson Design 2015
