Did you know that colour plays a huge role in the perception of a brand and the emotion and attitude that consumers show towards it? Understanding how colour can be used to build a strong, relatable brand is crucial, and in this blog we will walk you through how to choose the best colour for your promotional products.
Why does it matter?
Colour can evoke feelings and emotions in consumers, and can be the difference between standing out from the crowd or blending in. While choosing the right colours can enhance the perception of your brand, similarly poor colour selection can damage your brand image.
For example, if you choose the wrong colour for your promotional product or logo, it can make the logo difficult to read, and therefore ineffective in promoting your brand. As such, it’s important to ensure the colour of your logo and promotional products work well together, and give your promotional merchandise every chance of success.
There are many ways in which you can utilise colour in your promotional products:
Multiple colour orders
The majority of our promotional products can be ordered in multiple colours, so you can split your order to include more than one colour. This is great, as it gives you the flexibility to be creative in your use of colour, and utilise multiple complementing colours. This can create greater visual interest in your product, or a sense of exclusivity for certain colours and products.
Choose colours that complement your logo, not compete with it
Promotional products need to make your logo shine, so it’s important to use colours that complement your logo and don’t compete for attention. This ensures your logo is easily seen and recognizable.
Match your logo PMS colour
Many of the promotional products that we print on allow for PMS colour matching. This means that we can often match the exact colour of your logo to ensure you have consistency in your branding across all your marketing assets.
The meaning of colours
Red – In colour psychology, red is the most intense colour and can provoke some of the strongest of emotions. It is often associated with excitement, passion, danger, energy and action.
Orange – Often associated with fun, orange represents creativity, adventure, enthusiasm, success and balance. It is often used to command attention or draw the eye to a certain area.
Yellow – When you think of yellow, many people think of sunshine. Positive associations are made with the colour yellow, as it evokes feelings of happiness, positivity, optimism and warmth.
Pink – Often a feminine colour used to attract a female audience, pinks colour psychology revolves around femininity, playfulness, immaturity and unconditional love.
Green – Highly connected to nature and money, green often represents growth, fertility, health and generosity. It can also be negatively associated with envy.
Blue – Linked closely with the sea and the sky, blue often represents stability, harmony, peace, calm and trust.
Purple – A royal colour, purple is often connected to power, nobility, luxury, wisdom and spirituality, but avoid using it too much as it can also cause feelings of frustration.
White – While white can represent innocence, goodness, cleanliness and humility, it some cultures it can have the opposite meaning. As such, make sure you have a good understanding of where your promotional product will be used to ensure it isn’t associated with sterility and cold.
Black – Always popular in retail, black is symbolic of mystery, power, elegance and sophistication.
Grey – Representing neutrality and balance, grey can also be associated with depression and loss so if often used sparingly or as a complementing colour.
Brown – An earthy colour, brown is the colour of earth, wood and stone and often relates to comfort, security and a down to earth nature.
Finding the right colour for your promotional products can be overwhelming. If you’re still unsure of what colour to use for your promotional merchandise (think tees, drink bottles, hats, beanies, coffee mugs– anything you could put a logo on!), then give the team at Impression Promotional products a call.
