Don’t Overlook the Impact of this Key Element on your Branding and Marketing

If you knew that one element of your marketing program would have this impact on your marketing and sales results, wouldn’t you pay plenty of attention to it?

• ________increases brand recognition by up to 80 percent.
•  _______ improves readership as much as 40 percent.
•  _______ accelerates learning from 55 to 78 percent.
•  _______ increases comprehension by 73 percent.
•  _______ ads are read up to 42 percent more than similar ads in black and white.
•  _______ can be up to 85 percent of the reason people decide to buy.

The missing word is COLOR! Seems so simple, doesn’t it?

Yesterday I shared my insights about color in branding and marketing during a speech to about 25 business professions. I was surprised by how many men said that color is for women.  “Men know there are 5 primary colors. And what the heck is teal anyway?”  I guess he’s thinking white and black are primary colors too.  Although more men have color blindness, I’m pretty sure that both the men and women are interested in the impact of color.

The bulleted list of facts came information compiled by the Color Marketing Group. Think about it. How important was color in your choice of car? For clothes? For your brand’s logo?  In various marketing materials?

I was watching the election results yesterday and noticed that Hillary Clinton switched from the muted dark suits of the debate to bright red suit jackets. 

Color is brings an emotional element — “Seeing Red” or “Green with Envy” “Feeling Blue” “In the Pink”  Most people’s favorite color is blue and it’s usually thought of as calming and soothing.  Red is a power color, full of fame, reputation and excitement.

What’s new in color trends for 2008? The Color Marketing Group says:

• Going “green” as in environmental green.
• New Blues: blue says “trust me: and a new dark navy so dark you’ll swear it’s black is predicted to be popular.
• Metalics Warm Up: After so many years of brushed chrome and nickel, look for warmer shades — coppery, bronze-y tones — to prevail.
• Ethnic colorful: India, China and Latin America. reds, oranges often paired with rich browns as neutrals.

So how do you actually use this to improve your marketing results? I think that tools really help.

This color blender website helps get the complementary colors right. Thanks to Mike Sansone for the link. I’ve found it very helpful in preparing PowerPoint presentations that have to match client’s colors. I love the dial in feature of it.

Most of the color tools for business that I’ve found are for the Mac.  Designing in PowerPoint with color can be challenge unless you really know your way around the custom color choices for type, background, bullets and boxes.  Has anyone ever used this custom palette tool for powerpoint? 

 Susan Gunelius of Brand Curve has some interesting insights about color use in branding and marketing.

 How do you use color in your marketing program?  Have any tricks with color you’d be willing to share?