Brands, Logos, and the Psychology of Color

A company sells emotions before selling a product.

                Everyone loves colors. Colors evoke emotions, create feelings, and imitate the natural world. In pre-school,  I would often look for the strangest and the most complimentary colors, which would make my coloring unique and create attention. Most of my youthful color palette consisted of purple, red, white, and blue. To an ordinary human, these colors might seem random and of choice, but to a psychoanalyst or a marketer, it shows personality, attraction, and persuade the audience.

                Personality is a combination of behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs. It also shows the motivations and psychological interactions with the environment. The way we act with our parents, friends, bosses, and significant others and our preferences for activities, cuisine, housing, and geographical location show us an insight into our characters. It helps us define who we are and helps others to understand who we are without wearing them with our stories.

                Similarly, businesses use color to develop a personality. It shows their identity, values, and for whom they are producing. Every highway or expressway in the world mostly has a McDonald's restaurant near a petrol station. Its iconic yellow-colored "M" and red background can help us spot safe heaven for refreshments and toilets. And now, whenever I see a McDonald's logo, my stomach demands food (this is called operant conditioning, but this is a story for another time). Yellow, like our Sun, displays warmth, hope, and youth. McDonald's portrays itself as a child-friendly restaurant with happy meals, Ronald McDonald (the clown), and day-care and party facilities, and its color solidifies its youthful identity.

                Yellow is not the only color that captures our attention. Red, as seen on Coca-Cola and STOP signs, is ever-present in our lives. Red is the color of blood. It shows intensity and urgency, and it is also sexy. Companies often use red sale signs to get the consumers' attention and reminding that there is a sale that is going to end soon. STOP signs are necessary for traffic control and safety, and red compliments its nature of urgency and intensity. Coca-Cola, on the other hand, uses red to create affection for the drink, sometimes even making us nostalgic for our family summer vacations and parties. I often used Coca-Cola to anguish the raging fires in my stomach after eating spicy food, and now, without any thought, I look for the sugary drink whenever I consume chicken tikka masala.

                However, colors in the wavelength are not necessary to create a personality. Monochromatic colors, such as black and white, can also create a brand identity. News companies like The New York Times and The Times use black and white colors to display sophistication, sincerity, and purity. Since these companies give factual and accurate information to their audiences, neutral colors aide this schema. Moreover, black and white can also be used to create an edgy and professional vibe. Brands like Nike and Adidas use this vibe to attract a young audience while also looking professional. The simplicity of black and white can be used almost anywhere and thus make the most striking company logos in the world.

                For many, a bad logo can put off many consumers from engaging with the brand. For example, I do not like the Pepsi logo. It looks like a man's stomach who is obese and needs to stop drinking Pepsi. Eventually reminding me that overdrinking Pepsi will make me obese. Even the red, white and blue colors do not seem as appealing as Coca-Cola's red and white colors.

                In addition, companies rebrand themselves to reflect the current generation. Namely, Facebook amplified its logo by decluttering it. The blue and white in the Facebook logo imitate feelings of dependability, maturity, and happiness, similar to how a friend might be like. Moreover, Hindustan Times changes its traditional black and blue font color to only black, imitating other news companies like The Time of India or The Washington Post.

                Developing logos and a brand is not easy. It takes a lot of capital, creativity, and teams to come up with a suitable logo that effectively communicates a company's brand identity. Moreover, companies pay a lot for designers and marketing agencies for designing a brand identity because that identity is likely to last a lifetime. The company's choice of logos and colors can make or break the company.