Building a Brand: Choosing and Using Brand Colors

Building a brand isn’t something that happens overnight. And it’s not some magical process that will only happen if you have Coke’s marketing budget. Instead, it takes many little decisions and continued actions that will lead people to start identifying your business with certain logos/colors/products/fonts/voice/trademark symbols. All of these should be part of your “branding guidelines” – principles that you follow whenever your brand is in front of the public. For now, we are going to focus specifically on choosing and using brand colors.

The Importance of Brand Colors

Your brand colors will be used on your website, business cards, and any other promotional materials you use. They should also be represented in your logo.

Though you might eventually get a little bored with the color, make sure you at least really love it at first. If it’s a color you’re often drawn to in clothes or home design, that’s a good sign you won’t get completely sick of it for your brand.

Pick 2 Colors

So how many colors are we talking here? One or two. Some companies are highly associated with a single color: Starbucks, Coke, Facebook, etc. But others (including sports teams) use two: Visa? blue and gold. McDonalds? Red and yellow. The Broncos? blue and orange. You can have several secondary colors that work with the main colors as well. Just don’t overdo it.

Don’t Switch Things Up

DON’T feel like you need to mix things up based on the season/special promotions. We understand that YOU might get tired of your brand colors after looking at them every day, but that doesn’t mean your customers will. What you want is for your customers to start associating specific colors with your brand. You don’t feel like Coke needs to switch to orange cans, do you? The classic red works just fine.

Consistency Is Key

Consistency isn’t just about using the same basic colors: it’s about using the EXACT same colors every time. Subtly different hues aren’t going to cut it when it comes to building the brand familiarity you want. Make sure you are working with graphic and web designers who understand the nuances of using the correct PMK colors.

Any additional questions about choosing brand colors? Contact Niki at [email protected] to set up a free consultation.