The Importance of Color In Branding
Branding is a strategic practice used by marketers in conjunction with graphic designers to assist with developing the visual identity and personality of corporations and their products. Developing a brand identity allows a company or product to distinguish itself from its competition to the consumer. Brand identity is developed from many different elements in a marketing campaign including, but not limited to the storefront, the logo, the website, print materials, all the way to the uniforms the employees wear on the store floor.
The one thing that all these branding elements have in common is the specificity of the color palette. Since color is the first recognizable feature in design, the color palette
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The Lanham Act and its protection of color as a trademark, signifies the importance of color in design and branding. With the passing of various trademark laws, color has been permitted to be trademarked by companies to protect the visual identity of their brand (Madden, Hewett and Roth 90). This allows companies the ability to protect the colors they have used to build their brand since color acts as visual cues that aid in brand recognition. Companies can protect specific colors attached to their brands only if the colors used do not have any functional purpose or the shades of colors protected does not create an anticompetitive market. One must also prove that the color is not a reflection of an entire industry, but rather a reflection of a specific brand (Hoek and Gendall 316). This further proves the importance of color in corporate and product …show more content…
These companies are attempting to keep their products unbranded to lower the brand tax of the goods being sold. Brand tax is a term used to describe the hidden costs associated with the branding products. The brandless.com products are a great example of a company attempting to create unbranded products. While viewing their products, it is easy to see what they are attempting to do. The problem with their attempt, however, is that by branding brandless products, they are creating a brand nonetheless. After viewing a few of their products, it’s easy to see the similar visual cues between each product and the minimalistic approach taken. Although basic, the packaging looks almost identical except for the change of color between the various products. Rather than using multiple design elements, they chose various colors to make each product distinguishable between each other. They also created and aesthetic appeal and gave each product its own visual identity. By having similar visual cues across all their products, distinguishing between each by using varying colors, and adding an aesthetic property using color, they have created a brand. This drives home the importance of color in
In every given business, the name itself portrays different meanings. This serves as the reference point and sometimes the basis of customers on what to expect within the company. Since personality affects product image (Langmeyer & Shank, 1994), the presence of brand helps in the realization of this concept. Traditionally, brand is a symbolic manifestation of all the information connected with a company, product, or service (Nilson, 2003; Olin, 2003). A brand is typically composed of a name, logo, and other visual elements such as images, colors, and icons (Gillooley & Varley, 2001; Laforet & Saunders, 1994)). It is believed that a brand puts an impression to the consumer on what to expect to the product or service being offered (Mere, 1995). In other application, brand may be referred as trademark, which is legally appropriate term. The brand is the most powerful weapon in the market (LePla & Parker, 1999). Brands possess personality in which people associate their experience. Oftentimes, they are related to the core values the company executes.
What is branding? Klein states that a brand is a familiarity, a face that you can learn
For restaurants and fast-food chains, their packaging comes in the form of branding to entice a consumer to purchase from them. Their use of colour may take place in their logo, adverts, menu and interior design and the colours used must stimulate appetite. Fast-food chains, for example, the use of the colour red stimulates appetite because of its effect on our metabolism and is therefore implemented in many fast-food logos. Another common colour used in many fast food logos is the colour yellow. Yellow grabs the viewers attention as well as increasing their levels of appetite which in turn encourages them to purchase from that outlet. On the other hand, restaurants use colours that allow their consumers to relax and enjoy their dining experience.
Many competitors use red, white, and/or yellow in their marketing or logos. Wendy uses white and yellow, Burger King uses all three colors, 5 Guys uses red and white, the list can go on and on. The color in its self does not distinguish McDonalds from their competitors, it is their extra effort in marketing and symbolism that separates McDonalds from their competition. Customers symbolize the famous golden arch “M” to McDonalds, when the uses of colors is standardize in a sector, McDonalds have to implement other tactics to attract customers. Children and adults recognize the famous “M”, they know who Ronald McDonald is, and they know what a happy meal box looks like. The use of their color marketing helps, but with the constant use of their symbolism with their color scheme is what makes McDonalds the number one fast food restaurant in the
For example, the information at the bottom of the advertisement is surrounded with turquoise, while the actual product is surrounded by white. In doing this, the creators of the advertisement associate the product itself with cleanliness and neatness, while surrounding the information of the product with a color that facilitates introspection, causing the consumer to assess whether or not they need the product while being given information about the success of the product. Consequently, the organization and placement of different aspects of the advertisement impact how the consumers may perceive the
In today’s world an individual is bombarded with brands from companies all around the world. These companies start with an idea and most of those ideas develop into a brand. Brands rely on the use of semiotics, “the science of signs” (Ryan and Conover 25), to relate to consumers or interpreters. They also relay on the connotation and denotation of the signs as well as the colors being used. When it comes to the entire package of a marketing plan and branding a company or product, graphic designers need to look at how to create the brand from a visually and culturally pleasing aspect. A brand is mostly based on a semiotic design that uses a trademark image and colors that relate to a group in a cultural setting.
When looking at different colors our brain thinks of different things. For example if we see a purple shirt our brain thinks of luxury or wealth. That is the same when you look at an advertisement. In my groups Nike ad we used the combination of orange, black, and grey in our shoes because all the colors can mean something. In this case we used the color orange to portray our tag like “explosive speed”. Our thought process was that orange reminds us of fire and fire is common in explosives so we thought to use the color orange to represent “explosive speed”. The other colors we used were black and grey and we chose those because both colors are commonly used to portray balance and the act of being calm. We thought that the sense of balance in your mind as you run through the streets is something most people desire. One of the other things we used in our image ads is word choice. Most image advertisements don't use many words and our stayed to that tradition. The only words we used were “explosive speed” and we chose those words because they are powerful and eye catching. Once we chose those words we knew they would be able to portray our product the
A brand is utilized by a company to differentiate its products from others in the market. Some techniques for accomplishing this are through the use of distinguishing logos, names, color schemes, and slogans. An effective branding strategy is one of the most important components for gaining a significant advantage in a progressive market. Basically, a company brand is its promise to its customers about what can be expected from its product and how it differentiates from the competitors. The branding strategy is the part of the marketing plan that explains how and to whom the company proposes on conveying its brand messages. It will also explain where the company plans to advertise and what it will publicize both visually and verbally (Williams, 2013). Home Depot’s marketing plan will contain domestic and global branding strategies and will be a collaboration of brand messages from both Home Depot and Reach the Top®.
Brand; - brand is known as uniqueness in term of what products or service the company provides. Brand is also set of insight or image that represents seller. Brand defines symbol, name, term or feature of company’s service or goods. Example of popular brand is apple, Amazon and Samsung.
What is brand? Brand is a trade name which can distinguish from other product or service (Intellectual property office, 2013). Another meaning of the brand is to convey the promise or message to the customer (Intellectual property office, 2013). A powerful brand can lead the company to go further in the industry and it can develop the company's potential (Temporal, 2010). Therefore, brand is a signifying of the company.
... all the existing meanings and definitions of brands are provided. The history and evolution of brands are also looked upon.
In its simplest form, corporate identity is a function of design that includes the name of the organization, its logos, the interior of the buildings, and visual identification such as uniforms of the staff, vehicles and signage. For a long period, graphic designers have remained highly influential been hugely influential in two regards, in that they articulated the basic tenets of corporate identity formation and management and succeeded in keeping the subject on the agenda of senior managers. Currently, symbolism, or design, has assumed a greater role and has moved on from merely increasing organizational visibility, to a more serious position of communicating corporate strategy (Ollins, 1978). There were now three main types of visual identity such as Monolithic (single brand visual), Endorsed (parent brand endorsing a sub-brand) and Branded (a plethora
Color psychology, the study of how color affects moods, emotions, and feelings, is used in homes, advertising, art, cultures and more. Different colors are able to invoke different moods and emotions. These affects are dependent on your cultural background, upbringing, and personal preferences. Pantone states that “scientists have found that actual physiological changes take place in human beings when they are exposed to certain colors” (Pantone). While it can be subjective from person to person, colors are intentionally used in the arts, advertising, and on the walls of your home to control the mood of the observer. Color is especially important for businesses who are trying to advertise to their different customers. Rasmussen
Branding and marketing are both buzzwords that to the uninitiated seem interchangeable. After all, they’re both methods businesses can use to increase their profits and productivity. Despite this end goal, there are subtle differences in how and why the tactics are used.
Every company seeks to create its own brand - a unique and effective image. Purpose of brand is attracting and retaining customers in its market share. Branding in marketing is a complex technology, aimed at making advantageous position a brand from the competition. Facilitating the search for the necessary goods to the buyer, branding in marketing becomes more effective if the consumer product features meet market requirements. It is especially necessary to identify the goods, for a case of unprepared buyer which can not assess the competitive characteristics (for example, high-tech products). The development of technology has had a huge impact on human society. It is reflected in the fact that we are surrounded by complex technical devices that we use every day and sometimes we have no idea of how this thing is located within. Here the brand comes to help the consumer that stands out from all those product characteristics that are important to the consumer and facilitates the understanding of the product.