What’s your favourite colour?
C’mon – it’s not a boring question – and everybody has one, and whatever you say says something about who you are... or at least about the particular mood you’re in at the time of asking.
The whole field of Colour Psychology, the “Language of Colour”, the implicit meaning we take from every colour, and therefore how we can pointedly use colours in branding and advertising to evoke a potential set of responses Really Fascinates me.
As a field of advertising it may be well furrowed and clod-free, but it’s eternally relevant to the cause.
Louis Cheskin was one of the Early Greats, founded the Color Research Institute of America in Chicago back in the 1930s. A clinical psychologist, he really moved the game on in terms of “motivational research”, an early-day’s account planning approach anchored in psychological understanding.
“Cheskin observed that people’s perceptions of products and services were directly related to aesthetic design, and named this relationship sensation transference. He was one of the first marketers to use customer-centric methods, and to value direct customer input above marketers’ expectations or guesses about customers' needs.”
Source: Wikipedia
Did everyone catch that line about “customer-centric”? Next time someone argues that “Comms Planning” started in the late 1990’s, that for the first time the Big Difference was that consumers were put “at the heart” of the planning process, ask ‘em if they’ve ever heard of Louis Cheskin or motivational research or ever read anything by Vance Packard.
Colour psychology and Branding, it goes hand-hand, like holy matrimony and bride’s wearing WHITE, which happens to be a favourite example of mine. (How was that for a clunky segue?)
In a Western Judeo-Christian context, take the symbolic meanings associated with WHITE:
Then, think Apple.
In their Early Noughties renaissance, Apple applied white to create Tech-Sex Desirability. Be different: sell technology based on aesthetic. Create pure form, so pure, it has to come... in white. Apple made White... the New Black.
(Trust me, that segue made the first segue look slick.)
I once worked for a Corporate Banking client who came in hand with The Dream Brief. They had a name, they traded aggressively, they had high-achieving staff, but All That They Had... was far from all that they wanted.
They wanted to be a brand.
They wanted to have values, meaning, stand for something in the world. They wanted to buy a vision. And they had deep pockets and a willingness to invest to make vision real. In other words, The Dream Client. (That type doesn’t come along often, and you grab them with both hands and a grappling hook when they do.)
If you’re going to build a Premium Global Banking Brand, one that inherently appeals to the corporate banking fraternity, that transcends borders and cultures, and instinctively compels Ultra High Net Worth Individuals, then it makes solid sense to speak in a brand language they already understand and respond to.
Don’t think Apple this time. Think BLACK.
No colour is “all upside”, but you naturally look to exploit the positive properties of a colour. For Black, the positives are many...
For our Dream Client’s brand creation, we played heavily on black. Very deliberately: black. With every execution and creative asset Thoroughly Thought Through, because quite (in)arguably, Black is Cool; Glamorously Dangerous, Dangerously Glamorous, the most aspirational colour of any colour, shade, or hue. Simply, nothing does Black like Black.
So let me just end with this. Colour counts, really counts. When it comes to branding, it pays to know your colours.
SP.
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