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an article wrote by : Dmitry Fadeyev

http://www.usabilitypost.com
A Guide to Choosing Colors for Your Brand
One of the key elements of building a strong brand is color
selection. Every color has a different feel and various associations. By choosing a color or a
combination of colors for your brand identity, you will take on those associations. Colors will evoke
certain emotions and feelings towards your brand so it is vital to choose a color that will represent
your identity effectively.
Research reveals people make a subconscious judgment about a person,
environment, or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between
62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone.
WHY COLOR MATTERS
If you own a color in your industry, this color will symbolize your product. This can act as a great
identifier. For example, if you sell physical goods, your packaging will stand out from the competition.
The color will also be recognizable on any promotional media and your logos.
Where to start?
There is a great new tool which can help out with color selection calledCymbolism. Its an interactive
survey of color and word associations. Every page loads a new word, for which you have to select a
color you feel best represents it. The results are then aggregated and you can see most popular
associations either by color or by word.
To help you select the right color for your brand Ive aggregated the results from Cymbolism, and
also provided examples of logos that use each color:

These arent the top ten words that represent each color, these are just the words that happened to
have been entered and processed by Cymbolism and came out on top. Having said this, the sample
size is quite large and the selection should give you a decent indication of what a color stands for.
Ive also included some multi-colored examples at the end. Some brands choose not to associate
themselves with one color. Instead of two or three colors, they choose four or more. This represents
variety. This makes sense for brands that are platforms or marketplaces as they host vast amount of
different applications or goods.
There are also two more colors that havent made it on the list: black and white. These are arguably
not even colors, and they will go well with pretty much everything you choose. White you probably
shouldnt use because you wont be able to print the logo on white paper unless the white is used on
a darker background. Black is a good complementary color to use and a lot of brands choose to
have the text set in black because it is neutral and serious.
How to select your color
Look through the table above for a quick overview of what each color stands for. Some questions to
ask yourself:
What color represents your brand's personality?
What color suits the characteristics of your product/service?
What color does your competitor(s) use?
Colors arent tied to any particular industry though some may be better suited for some
services/products than others. You should aim to pick a color that will represent your brands
personality best. One that will give your customers the right impression the first time they see it.
You arent limited to one color. Some brands like eBay choose to go with many colors to represent
variety but you can also choose a couple of colors that work well together.
Consider differences in cultural interpretations of your color. For example in the Western world, white
is considered the color of purity and peace, however, in some parts of Asia white is the color of
death. Make sure the color you select will give the right impressions in the markets youre present in.
Pick a color opposite to that of your main competitor. The color of your main competitor is probably
the most important point to consider. If youre the first in a new industry or market segment, then you
have first picks. Choose the color that represents your product and its personality. If youre second,
then that first choice may already be taken. Instead of picking the same or similar color, pick the
opposite. Pick blue if your competitor has red, pick purple if they have yellow, etc. A brands strength
lies in its ability to stand out. Picking the same color to that of your key competitor makes you a me-
too product. Instead, you want to separate yourself from the competitor, you want to show that
youre different.

ection 1 - Start up a brand

Lecture 1: Introduction
01:09
Lecture 2: Motivational video
03:34
Lecture 3: What a brand is
01:27
Lecture 4: Building a strong brand
02:44
Lecture 5: The frame work of marketing
03:11
Lecture 6: The STP concept
04:15
Lecture 7: the elevator speech
01:00
Lecture 8: The winner elevator speech
01:56
Lecture 9: The 4Ps of marketing
01:24
Quiz 1: Start up a brand
4 questions
Section 2 - going through your brand

Lecture 10: Brand anatomy
Video
Lecture 11: Brand elements
04:31
Lecture 12: Brand name
02:23
Lecture 13: Brand tagline
01:13
Lecture 14: Choosing brand color
Text
Lecture 15: brand packaging
01:07
Lecture 16: Brand repositioning
02:04
Quiz 2: going through your brand
4 questions

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