Color guidelines for brands

A while ago I received an e-newsletter from Mitch Meyerson, an associate and advocate of Jay Levinson of Guerrilla Marketing fame. Mitch and Jay produced together an analysis on the use of color as it relates to marketing. Though general in nature, I think its a valuable guideline to choosing a dominant color for your branding palette. Their thoughts are listed below.

Red evokes aggressiveness, passion, strength, vitality. In business, it is great for accents and boldness, stimulates appetites, is associated with debt.

Pink evokes femininity, innocence, softness, health. In business, be sure you're aware of its feminine implications and associations.

Orange

evokes fun, cheeriness, warm exuberance. In business, it's great to highlight information in graphs and on charts evokes positivity, sunshine and cowardice. In business, it appeals to intellectuals and is excellent for accenting things. Too much is unnerving.

Green evokes tranquility, health, freshness. In business, its deep tones convey status and wealth; its pale tones are soothing.

Blue evokes authority, dignity, security, faithfulness. In business, it implies fiscal responsibility and security. Plus it is universally popular.

Yellow is an optimistic color that almost always evokes a positive response. Yellow gets you motivated; it stimulates creative and intellectual energy; it's cheerful and easygoing.

Purple evokes sophistication, spirituality, costliness, royalty and mystery. In business, it's right for upscale and artistic audiences.

Brown evokes utility, earthiness, woodsiness and subtle richness. In business, it signifies less important items in documents.

White evokes purity, truthfulness, being contemporary and refined. In business, it enlivens dark colors and can be refreshing or sterile.

Gray evokes somberness, authority, practicality and a corporate mentality. In business, it is always right for conservative audiences.

Black evokes seriousness, distinctiveness, boldness and being classic. In business, it creates drama and is often a fine background color.

I’ll just add this: when you put colors in combination, guidelines can become unreliable in no time. There are several authors who have addressed emotions evoked by colors in combination, particularly two Japanese scholars, Ikuyshi Shibukawa and Yumi Takahashi, who have created a five-volume set of soft-cover, modestly priced books under the name, Designer’s Guide to Color. For branding, volumes 1, 2 and 3 are most helpful.I'd try Amazon and buy used from a partner listed there.

Martin Jelsema
Signature Strategies
Helping smaller companies profit from the power of branding

303-242-5975

What do you meme by that?

A meme is a universal symbol that immediately conveys meaning no matter the culture or context of the symbol's origin.  It can be an icon, a word or phrase, a tune, a fashion, a color, etc..

It's actually an idea and its associated attributes, crystallized into a symbol that evokes a cultural response.

Several examples:

Red Cross for the organization and it's purpose
the military directive, "charge!"
The eagle representing the USA
Mortar & pestle standing for pharmacy
the circle/slash depicting "no".

The term was first coined by an English geneticist, Richard Dawkins, in the mid-seventies. It wasn't until the 1990's that the concept was adopted by several pioneers in the marketing communications business.

The use of memes, i.e., symbols, have been in use in marketing since the first craftsman carved his or her initials on the bottom of a pot and the trademark was born.

But the definition and study of memes in the marketing arena is recent. Two books, Geoff Ayling's Rapid Response Advertising and Jay Conrad Levinson's Guerrilla Creativity, speak to better marketing through memes. Primarily, they concentrate on messaging and marketing. (Levinson’s book draws heavily from Ayling’s.)

The implications for branding have not been isolated by either, nor by anyone else I'm aware of. So, here goes:

The first thought might be to adapt an existing meme to represent your own business. Lots of entrepreneurs do this, usually with the aid of an advertising media salesperson. They choose a piece of clipart that represents, say "pharmacy". In their directory ads, on their coupons, in their mailings, the RX symbol or the mortar & pestle becomes the dominant visual. This does identify the product category, but it does not differentiate the pharmacy from competitors.

So in general, familiar, frequently-used memes are not effective branding elements.

However, it is possible to adapt an existing meme with favorable attributes and associations that are not thought of in the context of your product category. This utilizes a definition of creativity: the combining of two or more disparate elements to make something new.

An example might be the use of the word "Doctor" in the context of auto repair - The Car Doctor.

You can claim the meme as your own in its new context, but beware of imitators. Once you've created the link between a meme and your product category, others will follow.

So you had better establish your meme-based brand quickly and forcefully.

More on memes in branding in future blogs.

Martin Jelsema
Signature Strategies
Helping smaller businesses profit from the power of branding

303-242-5975

www.signaturestrategies.com

Tension: required for effective brand

Two recent experiences have started me thinking again about brand uniqueness and familiarity.

Both clients resorted to an informal "market research" poll to determine if a unique brand concept was "meaningful".

In both cases, the results were obvious: friends and associates went with the familiar rather than the unique.

This type of research is usually instigated because the entrepreneurs are not comfortable with a fresh  concept. They, too are seeking comfort just as intensely as they are novelty. Comfort often wins out at the expense of a differentiated brand, so the brand never raises above the static. But one unstated goal is met:no one is offended or challenged.

Commonality has never generated buzz.

Novelty in face of conformity produces tension, and if there's anything that produces buzz it's tension.

So a little discomfort in the branding process is both healthy and effective. Go for it!

Martin Jelsema

Signature Strategies
Helping smaller companies profit from the power of branding.

www.signaturestrategies.biz

Beware of limiting logos, no matter how good they look

Recently I was asked to admire a beautifully-designed, Photo-Shop-created, full color logo.

 

They wanted my honest opinion, so I let'em have it.

 

I offended the proud owner who had paid a lot of money to a well-respected design center.

 

Even though it passed all the designer-important standards (good use of contrasting colors, relevant imagery, proper proportions, a distinctive typeface), it was too limiting.

 

There was no way you could have used the logo in a black & white ad. If it were reproduced smaller than an inch wide, it was illegible. There were no allowances for reproduction as jewelry or ad specialty applications. It had been designed to look good on fine paper and on the website, and without regard for any other application.

 

Also it was pretty generic. Though the imagery was relevant, it was expected. After all, doesn't every logo for a dog kennel need to picture a dog? Or every bar a martini glass? I don't think so.

 

The logo icon should have some relevancy, but it needn't be a cliché.

 

The moral is to ask your designer to design a logo that can be used in a variety of applications, from a one-column "help-wanted" newspaper ad to four-color 24-sheet posters. Also ask them to think alternative graphics to convey relevancy.

Designing logos for longevity.

Last week, an entrepreneur was telling me about a West Coast Design Studio who was promising her that the logos they designed would have a life of at least 15-years before they would begin to show signs of age.

That got me to wondering - how the hell will they know? Or anyone for that matter. Today's big deal design trend will probably become old and tired more quickly than a tried and true design that's already stood the test of time. Fads boil up and then get discarded in cycles lots shorter than 15-years.

But here's the kicker. The design this West Coast hot-shot was touting as a long-lived design was a variation of a fad that's quickly dying in logo design (at least it should be dead by now). It's the arch or arc emanating from one "i" in the name to another "i" a couple of syllables to the right.

An awful lot of graphic designers are lemmings. They copy cool stuff.

I'd say following the latest trend won't produce a long-lasting logo. The logo, like all elements of branding, needs to eminate from the core of the company, product, service, event or project being branded.

"Be true to thine self."