One of the biggest movie franchises in history uses color to make us feel all the feelings,
and you can follow in its footsteps to grow your business.
Think about Star Wars.
The bad space wizards, a.k.a.
the Sith, use red laser swords, a.k.a.
light sabers.
What emotions immediately come to mind when you see the color red?
Do you think of passion, anger, pain, or aggression—especially in the context of movie villains?
The Sith thrive on anger and pain, so red is a perfect color to represent them.
The good space wizards, a.k.a.
the Jedi, usually have green, blue—really any light saber that isn’t red—because
they don’t act out of anger and aggression.
Well, they’re not supposed to, at least.
Their whole thing is peace and calm, so their colors often reflect that.
Do you feel that sense of calm when thinking about green or blue?
Whether you’re aware of it or not, color can influence your emotions.
It plays a role in how you make purchases and how you feel about a brand.
Some research also shows that having a signature brand color increases consumer recognition
by as much as eighty percent.
The good news is that you don’t have to enroll in art school or become a filmmaker
to understand color psychology in marketing.
We’ve put together this video, and an infographic on our website, to help you understand the
basics of how to use color in your marketing.
We’ll share some tips in just a bit.
But first, let’s dive into what different colors mean to consumers—starting with the
color of the Sith: red.
Red Often, we associate the color red with strong
emotions, both positive and negative.
It represents passion, love, and intensity—even going so far as to represent anger and pain.
In marketing, red has the potential to make heart rates rise and create a sense of urgency.
If you want to play on someone’s impulses or drum up interest in a big sale, you may
want to include red in your designs.
Yellow Why are smiley faces yellow?
Well, yellow tends to increase cheerfulness.
You wouldn’t want a red smiley face, would you?
That’s a little too evil for my taste.
Yellow creates a sense of optimism and youthfulness, also stimulating mental processes and the
nervous system.
If you want to grab someone’s attention, think about using yellow.
Blue The coolest companies use blue in their logos.
We’re not biased or anything.
In all seriousness, blue is a color often used in offices because it’s been shown
to enhance creativity and productivity.
It just leaves people feeling calm.
Blue can be seen as a constant in our lives, as it’s the color of the sky and the oceans.
It’s just always there—like your business.
The color blue can help consumers feel more trust in your brand, so keep that in mind
when putting together your marketing campaigns.
Orange Orange shares similar qualities to red when
it comes to your marketing.
It creates the feeling of excitement and enthusiasm while also representing warmth.
Consumers may also perceive brands that use orange as friendly, cheerful, and confident.
On the other side of orange, think about the orange cones and signs you see in a construction
area.
They evoke a sense of caution, sometimes aggression.
Like the color red, orange can also play on shoppers’ impulses.
It’s a great color to use for calls to action.
Green Are you green with envy over how awesome this
video is?
Like the color blue, we associate green with life, with our natural surroundings, and it
evokes relaxation and peace.
Green also has associations with money and wealth.
If you want shoppers to feel calm, or like they’ll grow their wealth with you, green
may be the color you should use in your marketing.
Purple Purple is the color of royalty, wealth—luxury,
even.
When you think about the color purple, you may also have thoughts of success and wisdom.
In marketing, purple tells people you have a creative, imaginative, or wise brand.
Want to communicate your value with color?
Purple may be what you need.
So, now that you know the basics of color psychology, how do you use this knowledge
to influence your audience?
We have three tips for that.
1.
Know your audience You’ve learned about some general color
associations in this video, but that’s just what they are.
General.
How people experience color is not universal.
In cultures around the world, colors take on different meanings.
What means one thing to U.S. consumers may mean something entirely different to people
in Greece, China, or Egypt.
Even if you’re not running an international business, you still need to understand how
your audience reacts to colors before going all in on your favorite hue.
Test different colors before making a big commitment, like updating your logo or redesigning
your website.
What you perceive as energizing and fun may read as cheap and stressful to your audience,
or vice versa.
2.
Don’t just rely on color Sure, purple tends to represent royalty.
But if the messaging, the images, or the designs you choose don’t also evoke that sense of
royalty, you’ll lessen the impact of the color.
Color matters to marketing, but it’s not the end-all be-all to influencing your audience.
If you choose a color because you like what it represents, that means everything you do
should be aimed at that theme.
You’ll want to align every part of your marketing, across all of your channels, to
create a cohesive brand experience.
Whether someone is on social media, viewing one of your ads, or in a physical store, they
should recognize your colors.
3.
Use a tool to choose the right colors It’s safe to say that most businesses use
more than one color in their marketing.
Picking those colors is not always the easiest thing.
There’s a lot to learn about color theory and which colors work best together.
That could honestly be its own video series.
You start with the color wheel featuring the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.
Then you have different color pairings (or schemes), like complementary, analogous, triadic,
and tetradic.
That’s not the full rundown of color theory, but it’s a start.
Many tools can help you choose a color and create a palette that works for your business.
One tool, in particular, is the WebFX Color Picker.
Just adjust the color picker box settings to find the right hue and its variations.
You can save the colors you like and view color schemes that work for your chosen color.
That’s way less thinking than figuring things out on your own.
You’ll also have access to each color’s HEX code, which you can copy and paste into
whatever design software you’d like.
If you need the RGB values of your colors, you can find them below your main color in
the tool.
The tool does the heavy lifting so you can focus on implementing your colors.
And that wraps up this video on how to use color in your marketing!
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Thanks for watching!