What do Dell, Oreo, Facebook and Oral-B have in common? All their logos are blue. And according to the color emotion guide, each one conveys trust, dependability and strength.
People interpret color in many ways – and different colors trigger different emotional responses. The psychology of color – with the power to drive human emotion – is an important element in the marketing mix.
Choosing the Right Color for Your Brand
The study of color and emotional response is something psychologists have explored for years. Considering the strong correlation between color and emotion, choosing the right color for your brand is just as important as choosing the right name for your business. With a target emotional response in mind, you can make the best color selection for your brand.
Real-World Examples of Color and Emotion
Based on the color emotion guide, colors like black, white, silver and gold convey sophistication. And with luxury brands like Chanel, Prada and Michael Kors flaunting these colors in their logos, it’s obvious companies recognize the same correlation between color and emotion psychologists discovered years ago.
Even brands like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Wendy’s and KFC that flaunt the hunger-stimulating color red in their logos further demonstrate the theory that color and emotion in marketing is a science as much as it is a style.
A solid understanding of the color wheel of emotions can help you convey the right message for your brand. Here’s a closer look at basic human emotions and their color counterparts:
- Yellow: Optimism, clarity, warmth
- Orange: Friendly, cheerful, confidence
- Red: Excitement, youthful, bold
- Purple: Creative, imaginative, wise
- Blue: Trust, dependable, strength
- Green: Peaceful, growth, health
- Silver: Balance, neutral, calm
It’s easy to fall into the trap of portraying the wrong qualities and sending out the wrong message simply by choosing the wrong color for your brand. The knowledge of the right colors to convey the right emotion and message will bring you one step closer to marketing success.
The psychology of color is only one part of the marketing puzzle. Many other elements go into the marketing mix ranging from the most complex to the most trivial – from segmenting the market to choosing the right typography. But how much does something as petty as typography impact marketing? More than you might think.
The Power of Typography in Marketing
The same way color taps into emotions, so does typography. In fact, the font you choose can not only infuse your content with style and personality but also create deep emotional connections with a highly engaged audience. Choosing the right or wrong typography for your brand can greatly impact the reader’s decisions and perceptions of your company.
Typography encompasses everything related to readability – from line height and letter spacing to color and text size. It can make content easier for readers to understand and help determine whether the content gets read at all. Done right, typography can trigger the right emotion, mood and even action required to get a user to convert.
Readability is a critical factor for the success of any marketing campaign. Looking for the perfect typography for readability? Here are three tried and true styles:
- Tahoma at 10 point size
- Courier at 12 point size
- Arial at 14 point size
In a world where content is king, typography is the crown, throne and scepter – the small elements that form the complete package. Wrapped together with the psychology of color and emotion, marketers can deliver the right message, user experience and branding every time out.
