Most companies put a great deal of thought into their logo and its design. However, what you may not realize is that the colors of your logo can greatly influence consumer perceptions about your brand. The color of your logo can instantly spark a feeling or send a message to your consumers.
Choosing the right color can convey the particular message you want to aim at your consumers and potential customers. This will impact everything your company does moving forward including your brand reputation, social media postings, and the information you release to the media.
Imagery impacts every aspect of the marketing of your business because consumers or so visually motivated, it is important that your logo and imagery used online in social media attracts the eyes of your consumers.
Primary Colors for Brand
Here are what the 4 primary colors can mean for your logo and your brand.
#1. Red Color:
The color red is a bright and vibrant color that really grabs attention. It is such a strong color; studies have shown that people looking at red have an increase in heart rate, rapid breathing, and it activates the pituitary glands. Since it can be such an exciting color, red is used to represent passion, love, aggression, and sports. Target, ESPN, and Virgin brands all have red in their logos.
Red can be used in logos to show urgency or importance. Both BBC and CNN news companies use red in their logos in this way. Use caution because red can also represent anger, emergencies, or blood. Splashes of red can be added to office designs of other colors to add inspiration and motivation to move.
#2. Blue Color:
Blue is the most popular color for business brands. There are many positive attributes associated with the color blue including: loyalty strength, stability, trustworthiness, and wisdom. Many technology and social media companies like IBM, Hewlett Packard, Facebook, and Twitter all have blue logos.
Blue also is the color of hospital road signs. Blue is also a very calming color. It is used in offices to keep everyone calm and cool. In fact, employees in blue rooms have reported feeling colder than occupants of rooms the exact same temperature painted different colors.
#3. Green Color:
Green is the color of health, nutrition, and nature. If you want to be associated with recycling, Earth, healing, or being “all natural”, green is the way to go. In business, it can also be associated with money or military, depending on the shade of green that you use.
Green is used in logos of companies like Starbucks, Cooking Channel, Green Giant, Animal Planet, and many recycling companies. Green can also have a negative connotation if not used properly; it can be interpreted as greedy or envious.
#4. Yellow Color:
Bright, fun, and energetic are words that are most often used to describe yellow. Yellow is so bright that it is used to represent the sun in every culture on Earth. However, be cautious about the design of yellow in your logo because it does not show up well on white backgrounds.
In addition, too much yellow is so bright that it can cause eye fatigue and consumers can become tired from looking at too much yellow for too long. For the most part, yellow represents good cheer, hope, joy, and warmth. Companies like McDonalds, Subway, and Sprint use yellow effectively in their logos.
Like many other colors, yellow also can have a negative interpretation. Yellow can sometimes be associated with fear or being cowardly, so work to ensure that your yellow logo design does not represent any negativity.
#5. Orange Color:
Bonus #5 is the secondary color of orange. It is a popular color for logos, just as many other secondary and blended colors are; however orange, in particular, is worth mentioning orange because it can represent youth, warmth and joy in a similar way that yellow does without the color blocking issues that yellow represents.
Since orange is a blend of yellow and red, it embodies the traits of both colors blended together. Just as red can increase heart rate and breathing, orange has been shown to increase oxygen and stimulate brain activity.
This is one of the key reasons it is used in children’s products and education. Companies that use orange in their logos include Orange Theory Fitness, Blogger, and Nickelodeon.
Takeaways for Your Business
The designing of your logo is a very important decision that will impact just about every aspect of your business. Your logo not only impacts consumers, but will influence your performance in social media, your online reputation, and how the media recognizes your brand as seen in press releases, etc. Therefore your logo is very important, and your company should perform your due diligence in choosing the color and creating the design of your company logo.
Often times, the logo is also used in the décor of your office and retail locations, and that can impact your customers and employees considerably. This is yet another reason why the psychology of colors and the designing of your logo should not be descided on a whim. You will notice that quite a few colors can have virtually opposite meanings.
In order to ensure that your logo and the color you choose for it convey the right message, you should conduct some studies and ask a group of current and potential customers what they think about your logo. Combinations or blends of colors can also be used very effectively to help convey your branding message.
The main idea here is that you spend some time developing your logo and don’t just choose the colors you use based on random ideas or your favorite color. Putting some research behind your design will prove to result in a logo that will help your company and your brand prosper for many years to come.
About the Author!
Elizabeth Victor is Brand Advisor for iSentia Press Release Services. She enjoys sharing tips on PR monitoring and analysis, as well as social media monitoring and branding.