The importance of colour in your marketing

We are asked on a regular basis why we chose yellow as the SHARP brand colour.

We’ll come back to yellow, but first lets look at the importance of colour and how it can influence your branding and marketing ideas.

A few colour facts
Quite extensive research has been done on colour and how it relates to success in branding and marketing. Below are a few key facts about colour from Brand Strategy Insider.

1 – Colour increases brand recognition by up to 80%
2 – Ads in colour are read up to 42% more than the same ads in black and white
3 – Colour can improve readership by 40%
4 – A colour picture holds the attention for two seconds or more. Black and white images hold the attention for only two thirds of a second!
5 – Colour can improve comprehension by 73%

A few colour meanings
We all have a favourite colour and there will be good reason for that. As you see above, colour effects the way you make choices, it also affects your mood and how you perceive the world around you, and in this context the brands your customers buy into, and how they perceive those brands.

Below are three of the most popular colours used in branding and marketing and what they mean.

Blue: Blue is perceived as trustworthy, dependable, fiscally responsible and secure. Strongly associated with the sky and the sea, blue is serene and universally well-liked. Blue is an especially popular colour with financial institutions, as its message of stability inspires trust.

Green: In general, green connotes health, freshness and serenity. Deeper greens are associated with wealth or prestige, while light greens are calming. Green is an especially popular colour with health and environmental brands. In fact so much so that the word green has developed a generic meaning.

Black: Black is serious, bold, powerful and classic. It creates drama and connotes sophistication. Black works well for expensive products and is a colour very popular with global fashion brands.

Every colour has meaning and perception, so the next time you are thinking about colour for your branding and marketing its worth thinking through how colour will work for you, and making sure you make the most of it within your ideas.

Back to the question of yellow

When developing our brand we looked for a colour that represented the essence of our brand. It had to reflect creativity and positive action.

The meaning of yellow
In every society, yellow is associated with the sun. Thus, it communicates optimism, positivism, light and warmth. The eye sees bright yellows before any other colour, and the colour will advance from surrounding colours and instil optimism and energy, as well as spark creative thoughts.

And that’s why we chose yellow.

Great ideas start with a SHARP pencil!

A yellow fact and a FREE pencil (DUE TO AMAZING DEMAND WE ARE NOW OUT OF STOCK)
73% of the pencils sold globally are yellow. Unfortunately we have run out of our limited edition yellow pencils. Many thanks for taking the time to visit our blog. Apologies that we have run out of pencils. We think we’ll do some more (as demand was very high), so if you want to be one of the first to hear about it, why not follow us on twitter? Follow us at http://twitter.com/SHARPideas

The final word on yellow from the impressionist master Edgar Degas

“What a horrible thing yellow is.” – Edgar Degas

Well I guess you can’t please everyone!

Richard

13th Feb 10

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The importance of colour in your marketing

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