Building your brand awareness is not an easy task. It requires a lot of attention, thoughtfulness, and research, especially in areas that you may have not had any knowledge of until just now. One area I see people struggle with the most when building their brand is choosing colors. You may have wondered before "What are good logo colors?", "How to find the best color combinations for my website?", or "What is the best color palette generator?" The answer is, it all depends on your business. There is no one size-fit all answer when it comes to choosing your brand colors.

But why do colors matter so much in your branding?

Because colors help you build a coherent and consistent brand that attracts your ideal customers. 

Did you know?

• It takes 0.33 seconds for people to form a first impression on your business

• Between 62% and 90% of the important first impression of a product is based on color according to CCI Color Institute of Color Research

• 84.7% of people say color alone is half of the reason they select one product over a competitor (Research conducted by the secretariat of the Seoul International Colour Expo)

Let's see….

How color can help to build a strong brand

By Association

Associating colors with emotions or responses can be very personal. For example, you may love the color blue because it reminds you of how you feel when spending a relaxing weekend by the ocean. Or you may dislike the color green because you hated your English teacher who always wore something green.

By Symbolism

Colors carry cultural meaning. Think about the color red. In China, it is a symbol of abundance and luck. Another example is the color of white representing purity in most cultures across the globe.

By Psychology

Color Psychology studies how different hues can evoke different human behaviors and unconscious responses. For example, the color yellow is a color of optimism, happiness, and boosts mental activity.

By Physical Effect

Last, but not least colors can have a physical effect on people as they stimulate bodily hormones. What do you think why do most fast-food restaurants implement color red in their branding? Because red combined with yellow, white, and orange make people feel hungry.

All in all, choosing colors is a task you should never neglect. As you can see, there are so many purchasing decisions made based on colors only. Selecting the right colors based on emotions, and values you are trying to evoke is crucial to start building your brand awareness as you can target your ideal customers on a subconscious level without saying a single word.

Did you find it helpful? I would love to hear your thoughts on what other questions you have about building a brand identity. Leave your questions in the comments below, and I will make sure to create a blog post about it!

This post was inspired by Lynne Stainthorpe’s “5 Ways to use Colour to Build your Brand” and Anna Schiff’s “Color Theory: Branding and the Psychology of Color”, which I also highly recommend to read.