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What Color Is Your Business?
A Look at Color Psychology in Marketing.

Try this quick quiz. Fill in the blanks. You're sure to win.

1. The golden arches welcome you to _______________.

5. The soothing, pink antacid is _____________.

6. The beer in the green bottle is ___________.

Here are the answers upside down as they were in your elementary school Weekly Reader.

Color differentiates products, stores and organizations from their competitors. Here's why:

• Color defines the brand [BP].
• Color sets the tone [IBM].
• Color differentiates your service [UPS].
• Color makes your product relevant to its primary
   customers [Fisher Price].
• Color keeps your product top of mind [Home Depot].

Let's explore these issues one-by-one.

BP: Energy and Osiris

BP chose green and yellow for its corporate colors. Their choice differentiates British Petroleum from its competition. Most U.S. oil companies incorporate red (the color of heat, energy and vitality) into their palette. Usually they include it with white and blue (to create a composite that appeals to the American spirit). Of the other major players, only Shell, another European company, emphasizes yellow in its branding, though using red for its logotype.

In addition to creating a unique identity, BP's green and yellow are well chosen for their perceived messages. Green is the color of life and nature — an important image component in an industry frequently criticized for environmental damage. The word "green" is itself synonymous with environmental friendliness.

Color Associations: A Quick Reference Color associations affect us physiologically. That's why you wouldn't paint your bedroom orange. They also touch us on an intuitive level. Here's the paradox: science struggles to document the physiological reaction, while the rest of us intuitively understand the symbolic meanings. It's important to understand that symbolism varies by culture. The simple list below considers western perceptions. The Warm, Projecting Colors: Red - Western Cultural Response: blood, fire, strong emotion, passion, and sentiment Physiological Response: Raises blood pressure, speeds up pulse and respiration. Contributes to ambition, warmth, vitality, energy Orange - Western Cultural Response: fire, flames, pride, and ambition Physiological Response: warmth, pleasure Yellow - Western Cultural Response: the light of the sun, illumination, intuition, and intellect Physiological Response: concentration, mental activity, improved self-esteem The Balancing Color: Green - Western Cultural Response: life, vegetation, fertility (of fields), but also death and lividness. In Christian art, green predominates because it is a bridge between the warm and cool color groups. Physiological Response: Serenity The Cool, Receding Colors: Blue (Light to medium) - Western Cultural Response: Thoughtfulness, freshness, good health, coolness, cleanliness, tranquility, religious feeling, devotion, and innocence. Light blue is associated with the daytime sky and a calm sea. Physiological Response: Reduces blood pressure, pulse and respiration. Promotes peacefulness and nurturing feelings. A bad choice for food products because it curbs the appetite. Indigo (Dark Blue) - Western Cultural Response: Stability, knowledge, reasoning, integrity, confidence, and superiority. Dark blue is also associated with naval activity, the night sky and stormy seas. Physiological Response: See Blue. Violet - Western Cultural Response: Reminiscence, recollections, royalty, and spirituality Physiological Response: Calming, increases creativity Special Colors: White - Western Cultural Response: Purity, sterility, safety, and innocence Physiological Response: Sometimes blinding, it causes headaches in a few individuals. Gray - Western Cultural Response: Neutrality, inertia, and indifference Physiological Response: Cool, neutral Black - Western Cultural Response: Fertilized soil, power, formality, and elegance. Also associated with the occult or "dark side" of  human nature, evil, death, mourning and mystery. Pink - Western Cultural Response: Sensuality, emotion Brown - Western Cultural Response: The earth, nature, and richness Physiological Response: The color of chocolate, it can arouse the appetite. Gold - Western Cultural Response: Mystic aspects of the sun, wealth Silver - Western Cultural Response: Mystic aspects of the moon, wealth

As children, we understood that yellow is the color of the sun. Many cultures acknowledge this connotation. Whether you perceive the BP logo to be a sunburst or the bloom of a flower, it works. For you — and for British Petroleum.

Big Blue: When the Message Is the Color

IBM is blue — "Big Blue" to investment bankers and information technology people. There are many blue companies: AT&T, Ford, Microsoft, and American Express, among others. Even Michael Dell chose blue to stand for his computer company, one that is now head-to-head with IBM.

What does blue stand for? Physiologically, blue is a restful, calming hue. Relaxing. Stress reducing. It's cool and dependable. Isn't that what you look for when you buy a computer? Symbolically it is associated with the sky and with the sea, both of which are comforting and peaceful, yet powerful.

Brown: When You Already Own The Color

What can brown do for you? Plenty, if you're United Parcel Service. UPS must differentiate itself from the United States Postal Service, Federal Express and a host of smaller competitors. UPS drivers are recognized by their brown uniforms and their brown trucks. This color choice made a lot of sense in the 1920's when the company was founded. It was a time when conservative colors connoted dignity. FedEx's orange and purple would have been scandalous by the standards of the day. Besides, brown was a practical choice for a package delivery business. The uniforms don't show dirt and the trucks are easy to clean, which is important if you have to keep thousands of them fresh. Most important, this conservative color choice told the capital markets of the day that UPS was a sound investment, run by prudent businessmen.

By today's standards, brown is a tad dowdy. At best, it's boring. Brown is an earth tone. What company wants to be associated with dirt? But, in a stroke of marketing genius, UPS leaped over this impediment. Why? UPS owns brown.

The moral: If your grandfather picked an unusual color for the family business, stay with it. Emphasize it. Make it your point of differentiation.

Primaries: The Fisher-Price Colors

Fisher-Price and Lego have figured it out. These companies understand children. Every year, they spend a king's ransom on research.

Red. Yellow. Blue. Colors have different meanings for adults and children. The purity of color reflects the purity of its symbolic meaning. Primary colors - the big seven (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet), appeal to primary emotions.

Young children respond to primary emotions. They unconsciously reject mixed or impure colors because these shades mean nothing to them. While an adult might find a delicate blend of pink-violet interesting, a child finds pure red exciting. If your products must influence children, stay with the primaries. For adults, it's always safe to use a broader palette.

Orange: A Color To Build On

The Home Depot has pre-empted orange as its corporate color. It's a good choice. At the gut level, orange connotes happiness and warmth. A recent article in one of the company's advertising brochures spoke about choosing colors for home decorating. It referred to this color as "joyful orange"

How To Change Your Color: Luckies Raised Strategic Marketing To A Higher Level For many years, Lucky Strike cigarettes were associated with the color of their package - green. At the outset of World War II, the US government commandeered green pigment for use in camouflage paints and dyes. That meant that Lucky Strike packages could no longer be green. Faced with what appeared to be a marketing disaster, the Lucky Strike brand manager changed the package color to red. The change was supported by a brilliant advertising campaign that said in part, "We must all do our part to save America and we want you to know Lucky Strike green has gone to the front lines . . ." By the end of the war, Luckies had moved from fifth place in its category to second place. Lost in combat, Lucky Strike green never returned.

The Home Depot uses its distinctive color to create an intimate relationship between the store and its customers. We have both The Home Depot and Lowe's in our neighborhood.

The Home Depot was first in the market. They've taken the beachhead.

I own a Scott's lawn tractor — a Home Depot private brand, built by John Deere. As we saw in the quiz, Deere paints their tractors green. Scott's has marketed a distinguished brand of lawn care products for 50 years using green and orange as its branding colors.

My tractor is orange (with touches of green). The Home Depot did a masterful job of blending the intrinsic quality of Scott's and Deere, two respected brands, then associating it with their corporate color. This is brilliant.

I store my wallpaper tools in an orange "Homer Bucket" (named for Homer DePoe, the company talisman). It's a 5-gallon paint pail molded in orange plastic — not the usual white. Once again, Home Depot put its branding into place in my home.

	Learn More About: Color Psychology In Marketing Logo and Brandmark Colors Logo Design Branding Subliminal Advertising General Advertising

The Home Depot was the first big box, home improvement store to enter my market. Lowe's is the latecomer. Lowe's could come in cheaper with some products. They might advertise more. However, what brand association do you think I will have as I walk through my workshop and garage?

What Color Is Your Business?

Does your business have a color? Is it warm? Cold? Progressive? Dynamic? Involved?

Color associations create a distinctive identity for products and services. They differentiate brands from competitors. Strengthen them. Color associations can empower your organization to become a market leader.