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The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding

The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding

The psychology of color as it relates to persuasion is one of the most interesting—and most controversial—aspects of marketing.

The reason: Most of today’s conversations on colors and persuasion consist of hunches, anecdotal evidence and advertisers blowing smoke about “colors and the mind.”

To alleviate this trend and give proper treatment to a truly fascinating element of human behavior, today we’re going to cover a selection of the most reliable research on color theory and persuasion.


Misconceptions around the Psychology of Color

Why does color psychology invoke so much conversation… but is backed with so little data?

As research shows, it’s likely because elements such as personal preference, experiences, upbringing, cultural differences, context, etc., often muddy the effect individual colors have on us. So the idea that colors such as yellow or purple are able to evoke some sort of hyper-specific emotion is about as accurate as your standard Tarot card reading.

The conversation is only worsened by incredibly vapid visuals that sum up color psychology with awesome “facts” such as this one:


Don’t fret, though. Now it’s time to take a look at some research-backed insights on how color plays a role in persuasion.


The Importance of Colors in Branding


First, let’s address branding, which is one of the most important issues relating to color perception and the area where many articles on this subject run into problems.

There have been numerous attempts to classify consumer responses to different individual colors:


Source: The Logo Company

...but the truth of the matter is that color is too dependent on personal experiencesto be universally translated to specific feelings.

But there are broader messaging patterns to be found in color perceptions. For instance, colors play a fairly substantial role in purchases and branding.

In an appropriately titled study called Impact of Color in Marketing, researchers found that up to 90% of snap judgments made about products can be based on color alone (depending on the product).


And in regards to the role that color plays in branding, results from studies such as The Interactive Effects of Colors show that the relationship between brands and color hinges on the perceived appropriateness of the color being used for the particular brand (in other words, does the color "fit" what is being sold).


The study Exciting Red and Competent Blue also confirms that purchasing intent is greatly affected by colors due to the impact they have on how a brand is perceived. This means that colors influence how consumers view the "personality" of the brand in question (after all, who would want to buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle if they didn’t get the feeling that Harleys were rugged and cool?).


Additional studies have revealed that our brains prefer recognizable brands, which makes color incredibly important when creating a brand identity. It has even been suggested in Color Research & Application that it is of paramount importance for new brands to specifically target logo colors that ensure differentiation from entrenched competitors (if the competition all uses blue, you'll stand out by using purple).

When it comes to picking the “right” color, research has found that predicting consumer reaction to color appropriateness in relation to the product is far more important than the individual color itself.
 So, if Harley owners buy the product in order to feel rugged, you could assume that the pink + glitter edition wouldn't sell all that well.

Psychologist and Stanford professor Jennifer Aaker has conducted studies on this very topic via research on Dimensions of Brand Personality, and her studies have found five core dimensions that play a role in a brand’s personality:

(Brands can sometimes cross between two traits, but they are mostly dominated by one. High fashion clothing feels sophisticated, camping gear feels rugged.)

Additional research has shown that there is a real connection between the use of colors and customers’ perceptions of a brand’s personality.


Certain colors do broadly align with specific traits (e.g., brown with ruggedness, purple with sophistication, and red with excitement). But nearly every academic study on colors and branding will tell you that it’s far more important for your brand’s colors to support the personality you want to portray instead of trying to align with stereotypical color associations.


Consider the inaccuracy of making broad statements such as “green means calm.” The context is missing; sometimes green is used to brand environmental issues such as Timberland’s G.R.E.E.N standard, but other times it’s meant to brand financial spaces such as Mint.com.

And while brown may be useful for a rugged appeal (think Saddleback Leather), when positioned in another context brown can be used to create a warm, inviting feeling (Thanksgiving) or to stir your appetite (every chocolate commercial you’ve ever seen).

Bottom line: I can’t offer you an easy, clear-cut set of guidelines for choosing your brand’s colors, but I can assure you that the context you’re working within is an absolutely essential consideration.

It’s the feeling, mood, and image that your brand creates that play a role in persuasion. Be sure to recognize that colors only come into play when they can be used to match a brand’s desired personality (i.e., the use of white to communicate Apple’s love of clean, simple design).

Without this context, choosing one color over another doesn't make much sense, and there is very little evidence to support that 'orange' will universally make people purchase a product more often than 'silver'.

Color Preferences by Gender

Perceived appropriateness may explain why the most popular car colors are white, black, silver and gray … but is there something else at work that explains why there aren’t very many purple power tools?


One of the better studies on this topic is Joe Hallock’s Colour Assignments. Hallock’s data showcases some clear preferences in certain colors across gender.


It’s important to note that one’s environment—and especially cultural perceptions—plays a strong role in dictating color appropriateness for gender, which in turn can influence individual choices. Consider, for instance, this coverage bySmithsonian magazine detailing how blue became the color for boys and pink was eventually deemed the color for girls (and how it used to be the reverse!).


Here were Hallock’s findings for the most and least favorite colors of men and women:


Men’s Favorite Colors

Women’s Favorite Colors

Men’s Least Favorite Colors


Women’s Least Favorite Colors

The most notable points in these images is the supremacy of blue across both genders (it was the favorite color for both groups) and the disparity between groups on purple. Women list purple as a top-tier color, but no men list purple as a favorite color. (Perhaps this is why we have no purple power tools, a product largely associated with men?)

Additional research in studies on color perception and color preferences show that when it comes to shades, tints and hues men seem to prefer bold colors while women prefer softer colors. Also, men were more likely to select shades of colors as their favorites (colors with black added), whereas women were more receptive to tints of colors (colors with white added):

The above infographic from KISSmetrics showcases the disparity in men and women's color preferences.

Keep this information in mind when choosing your brand’s primary color palette. Given the starkly different taste preferences shown, it pays to appeal more to men or women if they make up a larger percentage of your ideal buyers.


Color Coordination + Conversions

Debunking the “best” color for conversion rates on websites has recently been a very popular topic (started here and later here). They make some excellent points, because it is definitely true that there is no single best color for conversions.

The psychological principle known as the Isolation Effect states that an item that "stands out like a sore thumb" is more likely to be remembered. Research clearly shows that participants are able to recognize and recall an item far better (be it text or an image) when it blatantly sticks out from its surroundings.


The studies Aesthetic Response to Color Combinations and Consumer Preferences for Color Combinations also find that while a large majority of consumers prefer color patterns with similar hues, they favor palettes with a highly contrasting accent color.

In terms of color coordination (as highlighted in this KISSmetrics graphic), this would mean creating a visual structure consisting of base analogous colors and contrasting them with accent complementary colors (or you can use tertiary colors):


Another way to think of this is to utilize background, base and accent colors tocreate a hierarchy (as Josh from StudioPress showcases below) on your site that “coaches” customers on which color means take action:

Why this matters: Although you may start to feel like an interior decorator after reading this section, this stuff is actually incredibly important in helping you understand the why behind conversion jumps and slumps. As a bonus, it will help keep you from drinking the conversion rate optimization Kool-Aid that misleads so many people.

Consider, for instance, this often-cited example of a boost in conversions due to a change in button color:


The button change to red boosted conversions by 21 percent, but that doesn’t mean that red holds some sort of magic power to get people to take action.


Take a closer look at the image: It’s obvious that the rest of the page is geared toward a green palette, which means a green call to action simply blends in with the surroundings. Red, meanwhile, provides a stark visual contrast (and is a complementary color to green).


We find additional evidence of the isolation effect in a myriad of multivariate tests, including this one conducted by Paras Chopra and published in Smashingmagazine. Chopra was testing to see how he could get more downloads for his PDFProducer program, and included the following variations in his test:

Can you guess which combination performed the best? (Hint: remember, contrast is important.)

Here were the results:

As you can see, example #10 outperformed the others by a large margin. It’s probably not a coincidence that it creates the most contrast out of all of the examples. You’ll notice that the PDFProducer text is small and light gray in color, but the action text (“Download for Free”) is large and red, creating the contrast needed for high conversions.


While this is but one study of many, the isolation effect should be kept in mind when testing color palettes to create contrast in your web design and guide people to important action areas.

Why We Love “Mocha” but Hate “Brown”

Although different colors can be perceived in different ways, the names of those colors matters as well!

According to this study, when subjects were asked to evaluate products with different color names (such as makeup), “fancy” names were preferred far more often. For example, mocha was found to be significantly more likeable thanbrown—despite the fact that the researchers showed subjects the same color!


Additional research finds that the same effect applies to a wide variety of products; consumers rated elaborately named paint colors as more pleasing to the eye than their simply named counterparts.


It has also been shown that more unusual and unique color names can increase the intent to purchase. For instance, jelly beans with names such as razzmatazzwere more likely to be chosen than jelly beans names such as lemon yellow. This effect was also found in non-food items such as sweatshirts.


As strange as it may seem, choosing creative, descriptive and memorable names to describe certain colors (such as “sky blue” over “light blue”) can be an important part of making sure the color of the product achieves its biggest impact.


10 things to remember about graphic design

10 things to remember about graphic design

1. Communicate

 

Graphic design is about relaying your message well. "Form always follows function," said Navarro, who learned this during a project for "Credo," a concert of the Company of Ateneo Dancers (CADS), of which she was a member.

 

 The concert was inspired by nine phrases, which Navarro interpreted into nine different posters, one of which involved taking a photo of paper planes that she and her brother flew outside their house. "It was more special because it was handmade," she said. The designs were also turned into tickets, pins, and stickers.

All her efforts were worth it, as people kept the tickets after. "Usually after the event, you just throw it away. It was cool because the people used the tickets as a souvenir," she said.

 

2. Know your people

 

Consider your audience. "You have to know who your project is talking to. What language do they speak? You have to speak the same language and be able to relate it in your work," said Navarro, who had to adjust her style for another CADS poster.

 

"I had to be cool and hip-hop with this. Kailangan medyo neon, medyo ghetto. You are talking to dancers, sila 'yung audience ng concert. So I had to make it attractive to them," she said.

 

3. Do your research

 

Tedious as it can be, research is necessary. "It's not just to come up with something pretty or something you feel like doing. You have to solve a problem, and you have to come up with solutions that will address those problems," said Navarro, who learned this when she redesigned the Bible.

 

"I had to illustrate the content in the Bible. I had to draw maps, and I had to make it appealing to my targetMARKET according to my research," she said.

 

4. Edit, edit, edit

 

Revisions are also necessary. Navarro warned against too much clutter. "Kapag may nakita kayong material, sige pasok lahat, dagdag lahat, pero kailangan ba? Kapag hindi, tanggalin niyo na," she said, showing a logo she made for wedding photographer Jaja Samaniego. 

 

"Ito 'yung sketches namin at the beginning... sobrang pangit. So edit kami nang edit talaga, hanggang sa ito na 'yung final artwork," she said.

 

5. Define your style

 

Finding your style means attracting the right projects and avoiding stress from clients who want something else. "'Yung magpapagawa sa 'yo ng clean when your style is actually magulo, or when you're a maximalist and your client is a minimalist," she said.

 

Because she kept doing handmade designs, the people who contacted her wanted the same. "They always refer back to my style," she said.

 

6. Be organized

 

Having a system makes you efficient. "Kasi 'pag medyo cluttered ka magtrabaho, mauubusan ka ng oras," Navarro said.

 

When it comes to designing wedding invitations, the process begins with sketches. "Don't render anything yet, kasi sayang lang 'yung effort mo kung hindi naman nila gusto," Navarro said.

 

7. Serve everybody well

 

Designing is a business, and good service will keep the clients coming back. "They're going to be loyal to you, and at the same time, ikukuwento ka rin nila sa ibang tao. Just serve them well. Kahit mahirap, don't complain," Navarro said.

 

She shared how she and wedding photographer Jay Jay Lucas couldn't agree on the studies for his logo. "Sobrang tagal naming ginawa, mga one month ata... I presented to him 11 sketches of different logos... from the 11, he chose four, and the four became that," she said, showing the final design.

 

The work paid off, because Lucas and his wife later got Navarro to do their wedding invitation, which led to around 50 other couples wanting her to design their invitations.

 

8. Collaborate

 

While having your own style is important, it's also good to learn from others. "Just collaborate with people," Navarro advised, showing one project she did with her boyfriend Gian Aguilar, a graphic and web designer.

 

"Ako usually magulo 'yung style ko, and because his style is so clean and minimalist and polished, natuto din akong linisin 'yung work ko. So medyo balanced 'yung hitsura niya ngayon," she said.

 

9. Get witnesses

 

It's important to expose your work. "Your work is not valid until somebody sees it or experiences it," Navarro quoted Grace Coddington, US Vogue's creative director.

 

"You have to show people your work. Kung nasa bahay niyo lang 'yan, ano'ng ginagawa niyan diyan? People need to experience it," she said.

 

10. Appreciate and be passionate

 

Appreciate your work, even the challenges that come with it. "Stop complaining. You're blessed to be doing what you're doing. Not a lot of people get the privilege to do what they love," Navarro said.

 

You should also stay passionate, and strive to inspire yourself every day. For Navarro, this means accepting projects that aren't directly graphic design. "Something artsy fartsy, para may happy projects naman, hindi lang client work," she said.

 

10 plus one

 

Ending her talk, Navarro added one more point. "Always aspire and inspire," she said, advising the audience to never get tired of aiming to be better than your previous self.

 

In turn, this will keep you motivated, and enable you to grow. "As you do this, you're going to inspire people,"

Success Tips from Master Graphic Designer

Success Tips from Master Graphic Designer

• Never work alone. It’s essential to be in some sort of collaboration or partnership with someone. Cultivating a creative environment is essential.
• Become facile with technology and don’t make that a secondary thing. When you’re young and you’re a student you can learn fast, so get as much under your belt as possible.
• Be honest, generous, loyal, curious, organized, inclusive, accessible, confident, humble, dedicated, brave, well informed and nice.

Early Beginnings:

I studied at Cooper Union in the early 1970’s, with the intention of studying fine art, although by then Cooper had been known as a school that fostered the talents of graphic designers like Milton Glaser, Herb Lubalin, Lou Dorfsman and Seymour Chwast. During my 4 years at Cooper, the graphic design department was somewhat diminished and marginalized.

During my last year of school I took a few design courses with two prestigious visiting instructors, Herb Lubalin and Seymour Chwast. But, for the most part, my formal graphic design training at Cooper was superficial at best.

It was not until the early 80’s that the department was re-establishing itself. Rudy DeHarak and George Sadek were responsible for fortifying the department.

As a young art school graduate in the 70’s the opportunity to learn on the job was easier. There were fewer graphic designers in general and certainly far fewer graphic design graduates. Expectations, competition and technology were all completely different. The global economy didn’t exist as it does today and graphic design was not as visible a profession as it is today.

I wasn’t a genius or a prodigy going in.  I was just a determined, curious, hard worker who paid attention and asked questions. I was lucky enough to get my first big break at CBS Television because Lou Dorfsman was a loyal Cooper alumnus and he gave me a chance.

I was naïve and ill equipped, but eager. On my first day Lou handed me a yellow ledger pad filled with sketches (drawn in red pen) for logos for the newly established Museum of Broadcasting. He stuck me in the corner of an empty workspace and told me to “work them up.” I was damn lucky to be within a few yards of a freelance designer/letterer who clearly felt sorry for me and happened to be the nicest, most generous guy in the world. He taught me how to hold and “master” the ruling pen. He taught me how to white things out, lig type (create ligatures) and draw curves and straights.  He taught me how to scratch and cut and ink.

It took about two weeks, working day and night, to finish the 25 logotypes. I tentatively walked into Lou’s office at the end of this grueling week and handed him a stack of logos. He said, “OK, good work, now come with me.”

Lou escorted me to the 27th floor.  Elevator doors opened and there emerged a huge and impressive art department that I had no idea even existed because I had been sequestered on the floor below for days with no human contact other than my “guardian angel of hand lettering.” From that moment and for the next year or so I worked in the bullpen “designing“ TV Guide ads. Lou was a fanatic about rags and kerning and he oversaw every detail of everything that left the department, large or small. It is there that I learned about typography.

I begged for better projects, little projects here and there that allowed me to flex my design skills. I was very lucky. The people that worked there were amazing. They were all dyed-in-the-wool designers and production people who were very generous to me and let me look over their shoulders.  I learned on-the-job from the best in the business.

Moving On In Her Career:

Once I was settled at CBS, I was able see what else was happening in the building.  I always really wanted to design record covers, and discovered that there was an entire other department, a music-packaging department, on a lower floor that was run by creative director, John Berg and senior art directors, Paula Scher and Henrietta Condak.

I worked in the music advertising department (just down the hall) first. Coincidentally, that was Paula’s first job before she became art director in the packaging department.  I didn’t know Paula at the time. We have a funny history together where I always had her early jobs; CBS Advertising, Atlantic Records, Time, Inc. Custom Publishing…. pure happenstance. We are dear friends now and share a great deal of history, baggage and lore/gossip!

I was fortunate enough to work with photographers like Duane Michaels, Richard Avedon and Art Kane, a priceless learning experience.  But, I became bored with art direction fairly quickly. I lost patience with the hours sitting around photo shoots feeling useless once I gave direction. I discovered I was much more interested in the craft of design and wanted make things rather than direct.

I was more interested in typography and form. With advertising it was more about the picture than it was about the type.

Before my time at CBS Records, I spent a year at Atlantic Records designing covers. I returned to CBS where I worked for the brilliant Henrietta Condak, designing classical albums, under her direction, for the CBS Masterworks label. Henrietta was a mentor to all of us in the department.

I really cut my teeth on record packaging with Henrietta.  I was lucky enough to be able to straddle that job with projects from Paula’s department where I could design pop and jazz covers.

Starting Her Studio:

It wasn’t long before I realized that I didn’t want to work for a corporation. Working at CBS Records was both utopian and dysfunctional. Creatively, it was really an amazing place and unquestionably THE place to be at that time.

But, it was the late 70’s and the tenor of the industry (and the times in general) was one of excess and, well, “sex, drugs and rock and roll.” I got impatient with most of that and left to work at Mademoiselle magazine during its heyday (when Alexander Lieberman was still editorial director at Condé Nast). It was a wonderful collaborative experience. Paula Greif, our creative director, gave us all a great amount of freedom and inspiration.  Roughly a year or so later I left to start my own studio.

Getting New Business:

As an independent designer I continued to do record covers. Warner Bros. called me to design Madonna’s first album cover, and I also had a fruitful working relationship with the J. Geils Band at the time. Shortly thereafter, I designed much of Nonesuch Records’ roster of releases.

I wasn’t making a killing, but had enough contacts to continue doing record covers on a regular basis. However, (the natural segue into) book jackets really became the lion’s share of my business for many years to come.

I managed to maintain a thriving business primarily consisting of book jacket design, with other things here and there. I didn’t have to reach out beyond that because I had so much work to keep me going non-stop.  I’ve done hundreds and hundreds of covers over the years enabling me to build a solid body of work.

New Business Development Today:

For all those years, I relied on the consistency of the publishing industry, and I didn’t really have to cultivate strong relationships within the business sector.  In most ways, it was fortuitous because it really allowed me to focus on the work. Most of the art directors that hired then me were very supportive of my work and enabled me to experiment and try new things. Book jacket design was not as “sexy” or as visible then as it has become. Art directors at that time had more control. There were fewer, if any,MARKETING meetings or other sorts of group decision making that often dilute the creative process. It was an easier, more rewarding time to be designing covers.

Art directors came to me for my style and my thinking and that made it possible for my practice to be more about the work and less about cultivating business relationships. To some degree I’m probably paying for that now. Cultivating relationships in the business sector is a totally different endeavor and takes a very different kind of attention and energy. But, I have few regrets. The trajectory of my career has allowed me to learn and to produce work within an environment that made me pretty happy.

Favorite Accomplishments:

Overall, I’m very thankful and proud that I’ve hung in this long.  (Laughter.) I’m very proud of the work that I’ve done. However, I can’t say I get pleasure (in, fact, its painful) from revisiting my work. Once it’s done, its done. I only look forward to the next project.

I also had a baby in the interim.  I ran a business that was demanding. I had at least 45 or 50 books that I was designing with one assistant during a six-week deadline 3 or 4 times yearly.  The demand to read reams of pages of manuscripts, to consistently come up with inventive solutions and then to run home everyday and be a mother (and a nice attentive wife) was a nearly impossible challenge. The “nice wife” part was definitely lost in the battle on occasion.

I’ve also taught design for 25 years and I’ve gained the respect of my peers in the interim. I take that quite seriously.

So all in all, I’ve done OK but I am very hungry for the experience of making new work and I’m anything but finished or satisfied with my accomplishments.

I’m now moving into a new phase. At my age, I’ve got a lot wisdom to share and apply, most of it pretty good, and I have decent reputation. But I am always aware that I have to be willing to re-invent. The business has changed, there’s no question about it, and I need to understand how I fit into the scheme of things.

Toughest Challenge:

Like any living, breathing person you get through stuff. Whether it’s losing someone close to you,FINANCIALwoes… you get through it.

I certainly won’t use these pages to list personal tragedies or specific challenges, but I will say that I am a very lucky person. I have a very supportive family and equally supportive friends and colleagues. And so far, I have my health and a few active brain cells left to work with. Plus, I’m a big advocate for therapy, marriage counseling, ice cream and mind-numbing TV.

Tips for People Just Starting out:

Never work alone. It’s essential to be in some sort of collaboration or partnership with someone. It’s really stifling and lonely to think that you can sit in your pajamas at home and work efficiently and fluidly. Design is inherently collaborative.

Also, although I wouldn’t have said this a long time ago, it’s important to become facile with technology (or have a staff with current and confident skills). When you’re young and you’re a student you can learn fast, so try to get as much under your belt as possible. The computer became a new and essential tool in the middle of my career. It was a difficult transition. It changed my work in ways I am thankful for, but sometimes I admit I am nostalgic for the times when I had control over my medium.  I often feel less empowered because of my lack of computer prowess. My assistants help me through this with great skill and enthusiasm.

About Carin Goldberg, Principal, Carin Goldberg Design:

Carin was born in New York City and studied at the Cooper Union School of Art. She began her career as a staff designer at CBS Television, CBS Records and Atlantic Records before establishing her own firm, Carin Goldberg Design, in 1982.

Over the following two decades Carin designed hundreds of book jackets for all the major American publishing houses, including Simon & Schuster, Random House, Alfred A. Knopf, Farrar Straus & Giroux, Harper Collins, Doubleday and Hyperion, and dozens of album covers for record labels such as Warner Bros., Motown, Nonesuch, Interscope and EMI. The breadth of her work covers artists as diverse as Kurt Vonnegut and Susan Sontag, Dvorák and Madonna. Her book jacket for the 1986 reissue of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” has become an icon of postmodern design.

In recent years her image making has expanded to publication design and brand consulting for clients including The Gap, Sterling Brands and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. From 2002 to 2004 she was Creative Director at Time Inc. Custom Publishing, where she designed and consulted on numerous publications for several clients such as the New YorkSTOCK Exchange, Microsoft, Citigroup and Gallup.

She has taught typography and design at the School of Visual Arts for 25 years. Carin was the president of AIGA/NY from 2006-2008 and is a member of Alliance Graphique International. Carin was most recently awarded the first Art Director’s Club, Grand Masters Award for Excellence in Education.