How Color Psychology Works in Branding Strategies
As business owners, we know how difficult it can be to settle on the aesthetic qualities of branding, marketing and advertising. Selecting typography fonts, design theme and color palettes need to align with your page and brand voice — but have you considered that color psychology can help you out here?
Color psychology is an area of marketing research that focuses on human beings’ responses to different colors. Specifically, researchers are looking for what helps conversion rates go up. Let’s look at what kinds of colors work better where when it comes to creative branding and marketing.
Blue
Blue is a color that lies on the colder end of the color wheel, which is why it’s associated with calmness and reliability. Blue emphasizes connection and stability, which is why you can see Tumblr, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter using these colors for their logos and interfaces.
However, blue can also be used to signify security and robustness, which is why credit or banking organizations use blue as well.
Orange
Orange is a color that can be hard to pull off for most companies. The brightness of orange can be off-putting for adults if not used properly. Think of orange soda, Nickelodeon or Reese’s products — all of them appeal to a younger crowd or are posited to be youthful products.
Orange can create a sense of urgency, but also warmth. The key here is to use the right shade of orange, or to use it sparingly against a more solid color.
Yellow
Yellow lies on the warmer side of the spectrum, like orange. And like orange, yellow is also inviting and friendly for consumers. The best example of how yellow is used consistently is to look at cereal boxes. Think of Cheerios, Kix, Pops and Honey Loops. All of them use yellow as their major color.
Yellow reminds us of childhood, sunny mornings and simple times. That’s why yellow is such a versatile color to use.

Red
This is the color you’ve been waiting for. Red is perhaps one of the most versatile colors that can be used for branding — even though so many companies try to avoid using it. Red can speak to so many ideas: urgency, fun, lust, beauty, leadership, excitement and more.
From lingerie and makeup branding to Coca Cola and Netflix; red can be used in so many ways and in combination with a wide range of colors to achieve whatever effect you want.
Of course, these are just some colors and some basic conceptualizations of how branding works with color psychology. The colors you end up choosing often has to do with your brand voice too.
Let our creative marketing and branding agency in Houston, TX help you as you find your brand voice and settle on the color palette for your business. Our advertising agency possesses great expertise in finding and showcasing your brand story.