What Brand Colours Can Reveal About Your Business

Your brand’s colours can tell more than you can imagine about your business. The psychology of colour can help your business establish trust and familiarity by eliciting the right emotions. It’s no surprise that the most popular brands in the world have a strong association with their logos. Their colours tend to reflect their branding, even when they don’t involve any text on them.

This is due to the power of colours and their ability to increase the brand recognition with the desired reactions that they may provoke. Studies have found that a product’s colour influences 60 to 80% of a customer’s purchasing decision. This means that the right choice of colour does not only strengthen the brand association, but it can also affect your total sales.

As a marketer, it is useful to explore how the psychology of colours can send the right message to your target audience. Your brand’s colours should be integrated across your site, your landing pages, your logo, your product and any other collateral that you’re creating. Stronger branding increases the impact of seeing the right use of colours making an impact on your business.

We’ve decided to have a closer look at all the colours and how each marketer can use them to connect with their audience.

Analysing the World’s Top 100 Brands

We wanted to analyse the world’s top 100 brands, defined by their brand value, to explore the most popular uses of colours.

Here’s what we’ve found.

Blue seems to be the winning colour, as it shows up in 33% of the top 100 brands. Red comes second by showing up in 29% of the brands and black or greyscale make the third most popular choice with 28%. Finally, 13% use yellow or gold.

What’s interesting is that 95% of the top 100 brands only use one or two colours. This can be explained as an attempt to maintain consistency by staying simple in their branding.

Moreover, text is not important to many of these brands, as only 41% involved it in their logos.

This serves as proof that a strong logo can make a connection with the audience, even with no use of text to supplement it. In fact, 9% of the brands didn’t even feature their company’s name on their logo, going one step further with the simplicity of their logos.

How Do People Respond to Brand Colours?

Every colour elicits a different response from humans. Colours can be divided into two main categories: warm and cool. Warm colours tend to be associated with energy, while cool colours are linked with calmness and security.

But how do each of the following colours affect us and what does that mean for your brand? Here’s an overview of what differentiates each colour and how your brand can pick the right mix of them.

Red

Red evokes a passionate and visceral response. It is a colour that increases your heart rate, makes your breath faster and is generally associated with energy, excitement and passion. It’s one of the colours that is attention-grabbing, while it can also be provocative and excitable.

Colour code: aggressive, energetic, provocative, attention-grabbing, passionate

Purple

Purple is a sophisticated yet mysterious colour. It tends to be used with higher-end products due to its association with royalty and elegance. Purple’s mysterious element is also linked with spirituality and it can bring a magical element to your branding.

Colour code: royalty, sophistication, nostalgia, mystery, spirituality

Blue

Blue is the most popular colour choice for the top brands. It is thought to put people at ease, as it reminds them of the sky and the ocean. Blue is also associated with trust, security and confidence which make a great combination for the brands that want these elements in their message.

Colour code: trustworthy, dependable, secure, responsible, confident

Green

Green is a colour that is synonymous with calmness, safety and freshness. Its various shades can create a unique brand identity for your company. Green tends to be associated with health along with the feelings of peace and serenity.

Colour code: Wealth, health, prestige, serenity, generosity, safety

Yellow

Yellow is a popular colour choice for brands that want to evoke a feeling of positivity in their identity. Its association with the sun on its different shadows brings out hope and optimism. Yellow also stands out among other colours, which makes a yellow brand identity creative and appealing.

Colour code: positivity, light, warmth, motivation, creativity, happiness

Orange

Orange makes an ideal colour choice for brands that want to blend the optimism and the brightness of yellow and the passion and the energy of red. It is a creative and cheerful colour that evokes a friendly and adventurous feeling.

Colour code: vitality, fun, playful, exuberant, outgoing

Brown

Brown represents the earthly simplicity and it is usually preferred to reflect stability and strength. It’s comforting in its simplicity and is preferred by brands that want to be classical and trustworthy, without proceeding to bold moves. Brown is associated with the earth and can also remind people of dirt, so there needs to be a careful use of it, especially if it stands out as the main colour for a brand.

Colour code: earth-like, natural, simplistic, durable, comforting

Black

Black is another popular colour option for brands and it tends to be one of the most classic options. It’s both classic and sophisticated and it can make a brand identity stand out. It seems to work perfectly with luxury products, blending the classic and powerful elements. Black is one of the colours that can be combined with others to add a stronger emotion, without losing the classical appeal.

Colour code: Prestige, value, timelessness, sophistication, power

White

White represents simplicity, purity and also cleanliness. These three make it extremely popular in the healthcare sector, in the cleaning business, but also in the child-related businesses. White can also bring out a feeling of trust by tapping in to purity and simplicity.

Colour code: pure, noble, clean, soft

Moving Ahead

It’s useful to understand the psychology of each colour when creating your brand’s identity. Your colour choice can build your brand’s aesthetic while also bringing you closer to your target audience. Use the colours that will highlight your brand’s strengths, evoking the right feelings for the right audience.

Do the colour choices you’ve selected for your brand align with the feeling you’re trying to give to your customers and prospects? I’d love to hear about why you chose the colours you did for your brand in the comments.