For decades, many psychologists have studied the vast number of effects colors have on the human mind and affect people’s moods, emotions, and even behavior. Thanks to these extensive findings, several different professional brand marketers have used this to their advantage when promoting their new products.
The Importance of Colors in Branding
The colors you pick out to represent your company play a vital role in your marketing strategy when designing your brand. Choosing the right combination of colors can help your customers remember your company more easily by associating memories with your business name.
Your company’s logo communicates your ownership of the brand and its values, qualities, and goals. On the other hand, the colors you use can invoke certain emotions in your customers that can work to your advantage in selling the product. For example, the signature logo for McDonald’s is presented with a deep red and yellow, which are colors known to induce hunger in others. However, the importance of picking the right colors is not limited to this reason alone.
At the same time, these color combinations can also stir up both positive and negative reactions with your customers that will help you change their perspective on a certain product or service. Using suitable packaging colors for your products can subtly influence a customer’s purchasing decision in various ways, leading them to choose your brand over others.
In today’s competitive market, selecting specific colors that stand out from your usual competition can make your products look unique, new, and appealing. Apart from that, you also gain an effective way of swaying your customers into choosing your products over other competitors.
Because of this factor, you must understand what colors can evoke which emotions and how you can use them to deliver the right message to your customers.
Appeal to your audiences
When it comes to picking the right colors for your brand, simply choosing a shade that looks appealing is not enough. While the general palette you choose will be used to represent your company and the values it holds, it should also remain relevant to your target market at all times. Because of these factors, product packaging and presentation changes are not uncommon, no matter what industry you’re in.
Since your packaging colors play a vital role in how your products are presented, you should consider different shades and tones to highlight other aspects of your design. There are many attractive color combinations that you can use to invoke positive reactions from your customers when used correctly and strategically.
Apart from using aesthetically pleasing color combinations, you should also remember that your product designs should be easy on the eyes. One way of doing so is by putting together light and dark colors to create a balanced contrast that makes your label easy to read.
When you tailor your color choice based on your target audience, know and understand that different shades, tints, and tones can also evoke different meanings based on cultural norms and aspects. For example, the color red is often considered a color of luck and happiness in Chinese culture.
However, in other countries such as the Middle East, the same color evokes danger and caution. Learning how your target market reacts to these colors beforehand would be wise to avoid gaining negative reactions from your customers.
Fit the pieces like a puzzle
Another easy trick that you can use to find the best colors and combinations is by looking into the color wheel for complementary and analogous effects. Through this method, along with mindful use of the color theories, you speed up the process of designing your product packaging. Once you come up with a good and appealing design, you can begin to embed this into your brand and other product lines.
In most cases, colors classified under a warm spectrum such as orange, red, and yellow are generally used to convey strong emotions such as passion, power, and energy. These colors affect your customers by building up excitement, enthusiasm, and desire, pushing them to think about a product and buy it. These colors also work best to create an even greater sense of urgency with your target market when used alongside phrases such as ‘limited time offer’ or ‘until supplies last.’
How to Select the Best Packaging Colors
By finding the right balance between these factors, you can create a strong packaging design that helps your customers understand your brand better. At the same time, you also gain an easy way for your target market to remember your business and stand out from your other competitors.
It may sound easy, but choosing product packaging colors can be challenging. Learn everything you need to know about how you can select the best packaging colors for your products by using the infographic below as your detailed guide.
