Blog post 7: Branding

Look around you. What do you see? Furniture, school supplies, food, or appliances- all these things, believe me, went through the process of color branding. Right, color and branding are two different words linked because it offers an instantaneous method for conveying meaning and message even without words! As a future advertiser, these things are essential to my knowledge for time will come when I will be the one to create my own brand of product or service.

According to an article at Color Matters, color creates a positive effect on every company that tries to open up or launch a new product. Colors has this power of attracting consumers and it is just so amazing! Actually, our minds are programmed to respond to colors. For example, we stop for red light and go on green. 

"Color plays a a vital role in the world where we live in. It can sway thinking, change actions and cause reaction. Color is a powerful and important communication tool, too. It is tied to religious cultural, political and social influences. Color is a meaningful constant for sighted people and it's a powerful psychological tool. By using color psychology, you can either send  positive or a negative message. It can also encourage sales, calm a crowd, or even make an athlete pump iron harder."

People see color before they absorb anything else. Below is a photo of brands and how it is colored.

Color is the visual component people remember most about a brand followed closely by shapes/symbols then numbers and finally words. For example, the real McDonald's is easy to detect in the image below.

Many of the most recognizable brands in the world rely on color as a key factor in their instant recognition. On another research, it has been reinforced that 60% of the time people will decide if they are attracted or not to a message - based on color alone! Based on a recent Maryland study at the University of Loyola, color increases brand recognition by up to 80%.  I think, the reason why companies are very successful is: effective color branding.

But how does consumer react to such? As I've read in an article by Jeanette Mulvey, consumers have a humanlike relationship with brands. In what way? "Consumers' relationships with brands are not all that different than relationships with people. Some you genuinely care about… others are in your life because you need them."

For marketers, understanding the difference between the two kinds of relationships is essential to making sure you know how to deal with customers. How consumers react to experiences with the brand, both positive and negative, depend on how they related to the brand in the first place, researchers said. Ironically, respectful and fair treatment by a company means more to those who choose a brand based on value than to those who have an emotional relationship with a company. The researchers think this may be because the brand has already met the expectations of those in an exchange relationship — the consumer got what they paid for — good and respectful treatment goes above and beyond. For those in communal relationships, who were already expecting to be treated positively, the same treatment doesn't have as much of an effect.

So if you are about to start up a new business, or if you are about to launch an event, or endorse a product, be sure to choose the right colors. It does not only give you an assurance that people will remember you, but it will also give you the credibility in doing or creating such product or service. Keep in mind that as advertiser, your main concern is about how people will think about you/ your product.