Choose the colours that your audience already likes.
Why does my business need brand colours?
Branding is a big deal. Your branding reflects who your company is, what you do and who you’re trying to reach.
Get your branding right and you’ve made a huge leap towards marketing effectively and appropriately. But get it wrong and you’ll never find your audience in the right way.
One often-overlooked aspect of branding is brand colours. Blueadz have put together a guide on how to choose these. And we’re here to give you the summary:
1. Consider your brand personality
What personality does your brand have? Is it serious? Fun? For kids? For aspiring entrepreneurs?
Your colour scheme should be influenced by your vibe and your target audience. McDonald’s branding was traditionally red and yellow, to reflect their fun, family feel.
But since shifting their focus towards providing some healthier alternatives to their fast food, they’ve changed their branding to a more sensible-green based design. See the pattern?
2. Research for inspiration
What colours are your successful competitors using? What type of colour schemes do you see on the products which your target audience are already buying? Choose the colours that your audience already likes.
If the colours you choose are already working for your audience, then they’ll be attracted to the branding you create.
3. Craft your colour combinations
Let’s say you’ve chosen a few colours you like. These colours fit your audience and they fit your message.
Now you need to start combining these colours in different ways to see which combinations work.
Again, think about the feeling that you’re going for. Are you going for a fun feel? A professional one? These call for different colour combinations.
4. Shades and tints
Here’s where we start to get slightly complicated. You want your colour palette to have contrast and depth.
Most companies don’t choose shades and tints that are just bold. Or shades and tints that are just pastel. You want a combination of light and dark tones to provide contrast and variety – and to make your branding look better.
5. Select your dominant colours and accent colours
From all of the colours you’ve selected, you should pick one or two that form the main basis of all of your branding. The rest will provide some contrast and colour from time to time, but you should build the bulk of your branding around your chosen one or two.
The accent colours are only there to highlight and complement.
Great! How do I choose my palette?
There are a plethora of tools online to help you choose your palette. Some of the best picks are Pinterest, Adobe Color CC and Paletton.
When choosing your palette, take a good look at what other companies do – and remember how much variety you have at your disposal. Depending on what your business does, monochrome might be appropriate. Or bright rainbows. Or lots of subtle pastels.
Think carefully about who you’re trying to reach. And if you choose your colours wisely, you’ll be a big step closer to reaching them.