Thought Leadership

Building Brand Connections
The Psychology of Colors

Colors make the brand. Coke is red. Pepsi is blue. Choosing the right dominate and complementary colors for your brand or organization is critical to success. Every quality brand must live up to its promise, but there’s no mistaking the power of colors in building strong and loyal brand connections.

RED: Restaurants use red to stimulate appetite. It is the most emotionally intense color that stimulates a faster heartbeat and breathing. Red conveys passion, energy, and action.

BLUE: Wearing blue to an interview depicts loyalty. Studies show that students and weight lifters do better in blue rooms. Blue relaxes people. Blue is the most popular color and is easy on the eyes. It signifies tranquility, harmony, patience, and understanding.

GREEN: Think John Deere and Boston Celtics. Green is easy on the eyes and calming. Hospitals frequently use green. It is a calming color denoting freshness, health, youth, and environment.

PURPLE: The Minnesota Vikings and Baltimore Ravens use purple. It is artistic, creative, more feminine, and romantic. Purple is the color for royalties and often represents wealth and passion. Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen, loved purple. And don’t forget Barney the Dinosaur and Prince in the Purple Rain.

BLACK: Priests wear black because it signifies submission to God. Black is a color of authority. It speaks with power, style, and sophistication. It is a popular fashion color. It creates drama.

WHITE: Brides wear white. So do doctors and nurses to imply sterility. It reflects light and is a popular base color. It symbolizes innocence and purity. A white dove conveys peace and a white flag is the symbol for truce.

BROWN: Think UPS. “What can brown do for you?” Brown is favored by men. It projects credibility, strength, and maturity. Brown is solid and reliable. It’s the color of earth and wood.

ORANGE: Think Home Depot, MasterCard, and the Baltimore Orioles. Orange attracts attention. It is warm, cheerful, and friendly. It is a good highlight color and popular at Halloween.

YELLOW: People lose their tempers more often in yellow rooms. It is a powerful primary color that can be eye-fatiguing. It has many shades and is a great highlighter. Yellow is used by McDonald’s, Besy Buy, Shell Oil and the LIVESTRONG Foundation.

Let Image One PR help you build your next brand connection. Contact us at 301-519-8040.