business branding… are your business brand colours in alignment with your brand message?

If there’s one thing business owners have in abundance it’s their passion – their belief in what they’re doing. They really want their brand to give the right impression knowing that first impressions count.

When we pick up a business card or a brochure, or look at an advert or a store window, colour is the first thing we take in.  We’ll be having either a positive or negative psychological reaction to the combination of colours we see. Most of the time we don’t consciously realise this is even happening.

Then what we do is we compare those feeling with the images we see, the logo, the shapes and the words we are reading.

Align or Not Align
As human beings we are constantly looking for harmony. We are constantly calibrating and when we feel something is out of alignment we instantly know something is wrong. We might not (and usually don’t know) but we do know something is not quite right.

It’s at this point, usually before you, the business owner, have even met your potential client or customer, if your overall branding is giving mixed messages it could be costing you the sale.

On the other hand, if the personality of your brand is fully expressed through the colour, logo, font and the copy of your website and material materials etc, then as the potential client or customer, I am getting the same consistent message confirmed.

 “Colour is registered by the brain before either images or typography. Colour increases brand recognition by up to 80%.” –  source: University of Loyla, Maryland study

Here’s an example. If you had a counselling business and your brand colours were black and white, and your copy read your service was warm, caring, understanding and listening. We instinctively know black and white isn’t about being warm and caring. It’s about drama and sophistication, there is no compromise.

We instinctively know something’s not right here. So which one are they? You don’t know which experience you are going to get. What might be going through your head right now is something like this ‘Hold on, are they the words or are they what I feel when I see the colours?  I don’t understand, it doesn’t make sense…I’m not going to bother’. And it is at that point you will most probably lose them.  As human beings we are always collaborating for harmonious patterns and we know when something is out of alignment, even if that is at a deep unconscious level.

 “…if your overall branding is giving mixed messages it could be costing you the sale.”

So how do we get to the right colour choice for your business brand? How do we ensure our colour signalling, our way of non-verbal communication is in alignment with all the visual elements of our brand?

Three Top Tips to Choosing the Right Brand Colours for Your Business Brand Personality:

1. Identify your business brand personality by establishing your core business values, aims and principles.

2. Select the tonal colour group (colour patterning) that best represent your business brand personality.

3. Select the colour or colours whose psychological properties best express your business brand.

Be aware the impact of the colours can change when colours are combined and their intensity changes.

Once you have identified your brand colour palette based on the brand’s personality and values, your logo, images and copy are all giving the same cohesive message, across all areas of your business, you’ll begin to attract your ideal clients and customers.

Communicating through colour
As a business owner how much thought have you put into the tone and combination of colours that represent your business brand? Do you know what they are actually saying?

Surprisingly, most business owners use colour as mere decoration or as an afterthought. Instead think of colour as a subliminal language, another way to communicate and to attract your ideal clients.

Used to its full effect, your branding colours will give you the competitive edge, elicit the right emotional response from your prospects, and significantly increase your sales.

What do your business branding colours represent?  What does it mean for your business brand identity?

Like to know more?
If you would like to know more, then grab your free copy of
7 mistakes most business owners make with their branding colours and how to avoid them.