How To Use The Psychology Of Colors For Your Small Business
Colors are silent but powerful elements that we seldom give credit to. Most people have a few favorite colors. Your choice of hue lends new meaning to your clothes, furniture, car, and businesses. It impacts your mood, decisions, and emotional and mental state.
Choosing the right colors can also be significant when you own a business. It doesn’t matter if you are just starting out or have been operating for a few months or years. Your selection of color palettes can help your business succeed.
Colors aren’t as simple as they seem. They can positively influence your potential clientele and steer them in the right direction—one that benefits your business.
To use these colors effectively, you must first understand what they are and what they symbolize.
What Is The Psychology Of Colors?
Color psychology studies how colors relate to human reactions and behaviors. This branch of science helps identify how different colors influence your decisions.
For example, the psychology of colors will assess if you will click on an icon if it is red or purchase a new dress because it is green. Will you pick one brand over the other simply because their logo is predominantly blue?
Color psychology can answer all of these questions. Colors and what they signify can make you choose one product over the other. In other words, choosing the right colors can help your business scale new heights.
People may interpret the same color differently depending on their culture, upbringing, gender, values, and location—to name a few.
How Do These Colors Impact You?
Different colors can stir emotions in you. Colors can make you recall memories—the good and the bad. Colors can boost or ruin your mood, entice you to eat, or make you lose your appetite. They can even affect the quality of your sleep.
Colors can also help you establish your brand and influence how your potential clients and customers perceive your business.
Regardless of the nature of your business, you need to be able to connect to your clientele, and the colors you use in your logo, workspace, and website can help you achieve this.
Color psychology, when used correctly, can make your brand solid and relatable.
Some Standard Colors And Their Influence
#1. Red
Red is a bold and passionate color. It can quickly draw attention and stir excitement, action, and even danger. In color psychology, red is considered the most intense color and can trigger the strongest emotion in you.
The color red also invokes a sense of urgency, so you may notice that on brand websites, the “Order Now,” “Sale,” or “Add To Cart” buttons are generally in red. It encourages you to respond to a call to action.
Big businesses like Target and Coca-Cola all use red in their iconic logos. It calls out to your excitement to shop or to satisfy that thirst. YouTube also uses red as part of its logo. Specifically, the play icon encourages you to do something—in this case, to play that video.
#2. Orange
The cheerful color orange influences your creativity and playfulness. It taps your sense of adventure, enthusiasm, and positivity. Seeing the color orange triggers your excitement but is not as powerful as the color red. It draws enough attention without too much pressure.
The Home Depot and the Nickelodeon channel use this bright color in their branding. The kids’ channel perfectly taps any young ones’ attention and eagerness. At the same time, homeowners who enjoy doing different DIY projects will always head to The Home Depot for their materials.
This is a perfect example of the use of the psychology of colors. The materials you get from Home Depot allow you to unleash your creativity through home projects and makeovers.
#3. Yellow
Sunshine has always been associated with the color yellow. Yellow reminds you of summer, optimism, and happy thoughts. While it is always perceived as a feel-good color, it can also indicate warning and deceit.
Although not a favorite because it can be too bright for some, brands like Ikea and Ferrari use this as their base color in their branding. You’ll have happy and contented thoughts when you are driving a Ferrari.
This luxury brand evokes happiness and thoughts of a carefree, contented lifestyle, while Ikea also brings joy to its shoppers, especially with ongoing deals and sales. Additionally, many people building their first homes usually shop in Ikea, so the brand becomes a massive contributor to the fulfillment of dreams and signifies the achievement of milestones.
#4. Pink
The color of femininity, young love, and playfulness, pink always targets the female audience and little girls. Many brands use pink in the product packaging of toys intended for girls.
The color pink is also associated with romance, holidays, and almost everything cute. For women, this triggers happy memories of their childhood, having fun, and growing into womanhood.
It is no surprise that brands like Victoria’s Secret and Barbie use various shades of pink for their products.
#5. Blue
The color of the sea and sky, the color blue, is associated with feelings of peace and tranquility. Most people will declare this their favorite color. Aside from its calming vibes, blue is also the color of strength and trust.
When perceived in a negative light, blue is also the color of depression and can emit a sense of coldness and indifference.
Most brands incorporate this color in their branding and marketing strategies. Popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and the chat app Skype use blue in their logos. Even Walmart uses the color blue with the intent to position itself as a reliable and trustworthy brand.
Final Thoughts
When running a business or planning on starting one, be mindful of your color choices and your target audience, as your choice of color can make or break your goal.
Decide how you want your brand to be perceived, and use color psychology to your advantage. From website design to colors used in your custom packaging.