What Is Color Psychology Marketing and How It Affects Your Brand
Did you ever walk into a store only to discover that it wasn’t a store but actually a restaurant?
We tend to associate colors to certain things. If you’re going to a pharmacy, you expect it to be white. A kindergarten not so much. Did you know that there is a part of psychology that studies emotions and reactions of people to certain colors? It is referred to as color psychology.
It has been proven that people react differently to certain colors and that these colors elicit different emotional states, behaviors, and moods. If we take this into consideration, it’s quite easy to see how we can use it for the purposes of marketing, advertising, and overall improvement of sales. Using colors that are appropriate to a given situation is immensely important to the success of your explainer video.
If you know that red encourages action, you might want use it on your retail website because red encourages shoppers to take advantage of your offers. If you are creating an explainer video about all-natural herbal remedies, it would make sense that you use a lot of green. It would be a complete miss if you used, let’s say, purple, since purple is such a rare color in nature. Have you noticed that fast food restaurants are mostly yellow, red, or orange? It’s no wonder that these particular colors are so dominant in these places. They encourage visitors to eat faster and then leave, which is the real reason why these kinds of restaurants exist. Have you noticed that toys, books, or websites for kids are usually adorned with pastel and primary colors? The reason is that small children love these colors and they react to them more positively than to other combinations of stronger colors.
When you’re creating and developing your new brand’s story, redesigning your organization’s or company’s logo, making brochures, posters, explainer videos, or any other material, you should keep in mind that the colors you are using are an immensely powerful marketing tool. A certain color combination can not only improve the overall look and feel, but it can also affect our mood and behavior. Colors should not be used randomly.
Color psychology, apart from studying physiological reactions to colors, also studies the cultural aspect of color use – the traditional deep-seated patterns in people’s minds that differ across the globe. Thanks to symbolism and psychology, we can target specific audiences that a certain product is meant for, thus achieving more meaningful sales results.
However, explication and effects of colors on people’s behaviors differ across various cultures, so it is imperative that the color choice is contextually appropriate to the culture of your target audience. One color can have very different meanings across cultures. Depending on where and how it is used, it can have two opposite psychological effects on the viewer.
Here are some interpretations of colors. Grief is symbolized by the color white in China and India, purple in Brazil, and black in Europe and the US. Yellow is considered the most beautiful and prestigious color in China, in Greece it symbolizes grief, and in France jealousy.
Below you’ll see some meanings that certain colors correspond with in the North American culture. These interpretations could partially hold true for Europe as well.
Red – excitement, strength, passion, speed, danger
Blue – trust, belonging, freshness
Yellow – warmth, happiness, joy, cowardice
Orange – playfulness, warmth, liveliness
Green – nature, freshness, growth, abundance
Purple – classiness, spirituality, dignity
Pink – gentleness, kindness, safeness
Gold – prestige, luxury
Silver – prestige, coldness
White – moral purity, holiness, innocence, youth, gentleness
Black – sophistication, elegance, mystery
Now take a look at the girl in the image below. We’ve used different colors for her dress and her background. They all set a different tone. You choose the color to use in your explainer video in accordance with the tone and mood you want to set for your viewers. This is why color psychology is so important and has to be taken into consideration.
As Antoni Gaudi said, “Color in certain places has the great value of making the outlines and structural planes seem more energetic.” So how does one use color psychology in an explainer video? Well, if you’ve done your homework on time and analyzed colors before creating your logo, you could simply incorporate your brand colors into your explainer video. However, if the explainer video you are looking to produce has a different message to convey, you might want to investigate a bit before you get into the production process. The importance of color psychology for an explainer video is huge. It is the key to understanding why your video might be a hit in one country, but at the same time be a complete bust in another.
Have you ever used color psychology? What do you think are some of the biggest mistakes marketers make? If you liked this article, don’t forget to share it with your friends and colleagues. Leave us a comment in the section below and let’s start a discussion.
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