Color Psychology and Brands- Right Implementation in Web Design

Top brands use the psychology of color to influence customers' purchasing decisions. Different shades have different meanings. Fast food chains use red and yellow to arouse appetite and feelings of cheerfulness. Websites should have the right color schemes to connect with your audience.

What comes to our mind when we see shades of red, yellow, blue, orange, or brown? These colors have an impact on our emotions, moods, or feelings. Most of us doesn''t realize how exciting the psychology of colors can be. In this post, we are going to address this topic and how different colors are used by the top corporate brands in their web design.

Before we delve deeper as to how brands make the best use of different shades to communicate their business message, it's important that you understand the implications of each of these colors.Warm and Cool Colors

worm and cool colors-website design

Colors can be categorized into two primary categories. The first category includes the warm colors like red, yellow and orange. These shades are associated with feelings of comfort, warmth, and coziness. These shades also indicate extreme emotions such as aggression and anger. The second category is cool shades including purple, blue and green. These hues are indicative of serenity, calmness, and tranquility. Again, blue also evokes feelings of melancholy and sadness. This is the reason we often say, She is feeling blue.

Giant corporate brands use the psychology of color and build strong marketing campaigns based on it. These companies believe the way people react to shades influence their purchasing decisions.

Let's try to understand now the significance of different shades and what they denote:

White- It signifies purity and innocence.

Red- It is related to feelings of warmth, comfort and love. It is an intense shade that also arouses strong feelings of desire, passion, sexuality and excitement. Red also denotes anger and danger!

Yellow- Yellow is associated with feelings of enjoyment and cheerfulness. Yellow is also tiring to human eyes. This is the reason you will rarely find a website designed using bright yellow except playrooms meant for children.

Blue- Blue is the most preferred color of men. It is related to calmness, trust, security, dependability and soberness.

Brown- It is a natural hue and signifies reliability, strength, security and comfort.

Green- It is a symbolism of nature and the elements associated with nature. It relieves stress and is a symbol of tranquility. Green also indicates feelings of jealousy!

Orange- It is the most blatant color symbolizing warmth, energy, excitement and motivation. This is the reason work space of corporate houses are designed using orange.

Black- This is one shade that indicates sadness, mourning and unhappiness. It also indicates power, formality and elegance. Black is an internationally accepted color of mourning.

Purple- It signifies wealth, opulence, luxury, wisdom, royalty and spirituality. It is also indicative of sex and relationships.

Pink- It is related to romance, youth, love, fun and freshness.

So, we now have a clear perception of different colors. Let''s analyze how brands use it to their advantage.

Case Studies:

McDonalds- This fast food giant has its restaurants designed in red and yellow. Red is a great appetizer and yellow is associated with the cheerfulness of dining out with kids!

mcdonalds logo red and yellow

Nestle- Do you remember the tagline of Nestle? It runs like this: 'Good Food, Good Life''. As far as the color scheme of the website is concerned, white, blue, and gray has been used to make customers feel secure and calm. Blue is associated with dependability. So, next time you buy products from Nestle, you know that you are purchasing from a reliable brand.

nestle white bloe and gray

Cadbury- The Cadbury website has been created using shades of purple. That''s because purple is associated with luxury and opulence. And, Cadbury products are really special! And, when you gift chocolates to someone, it makes that person feel special and pampered. So, the use of purple is pretty interesting. Again, black dark chocolates relate to sex while Snikers denote energy.

cadbury purple

Nokia- If you observe the Nokia website, you will find shades of white, blue, gray, and a little pink. Blue has been used to denote dependability, white for the purpose of clarity, and pink probably to grab the attention of girls. The color scheme of Nokia website has been smartly used to convey the message that its products are dependable.

nokia blue white and gray

L'oreal- When it comes to the L''oreal website, it has purple in profusion. If you notice carefully, all possible tones of purple has been used. With its products, women will look stylish, sexy, feel on the top of the world, and of course special!

loreal purple Kellogg''s- The website of Kellogg's has a profusion of red, and also yellow. This is indicative of a lot of fun, cheerfulness, and excitement. Yellow has been used to show that your kids will have fun enjoying Kellogg''s products. kelloggs red and yellow Pizza Hut- As far as the Pizza hut site is concerned, it has an abundance of red. Red is a color that arouses hunger. This is the reason it has been used in such abundance. It also has shades of yellow to denote the happiness of devouring cheese-dripping pizzas topped with lip-smacking toppings! pizza hut red and yellow Maggi- This website has an abundance of yellow and red. Children eat Maggi noodles when they return hungry from school or after play. And, they feel happy when savoring a steaming bowl of the 2-minute noodles. Red makes them feel more hungry and yellow cheerful. maggi red and yellow Gillette- This website has been flooded with blue because blue is a shade that is loved by all men. It also shows that Gillette products are trusted by guys. gillette blue Marlboro- The use of red, gray, and black in the Marlboro website evokes feelings of power, strong emotions, and male sex appeal. These colors have been specifically used to denote the mark of a real man. marlboro red and black Color Tips and Ideas for Web design Let's have a look now at how colors should be used in your website. Focus on Contrast The background hue of your web page should be light if the font is of a darker shade like deep gray or black. Black font against a white backdrop is the most practical thing to do. Do Not Overdo Colors should be used in moderation and not overused. Only then you will be able to grab visitor attention. It's true that colors are persuasive but not so if your web pages look like a multi-hued rainbow. Links and Clicked Links Most of the popular websites on the Internet have links as blue. Be it Google, BBC, Yahoo, New York Times, or eBay. So, let's not deviate from this rule. And, as far as clicked links are concerned, they should turn maroon after being clicked by a visitor. Use Shades that are Easy on Eyes Popular sites use neutral hues and a few primary shades. Neutral shades are softer on a visitor's eye than trying to make your website too gaudy with several primary colors. No Clashing Shades Please! Can you read bright green text against a vivid orange background? No, it will hurt your eyes and text would be difficult to read. Therefore, avoid poor color combinations. Add More White Space By creating white space between chunks of content and blocks of colors, your website will be able to guide the viewer's attention to specific areas on the page. A light-hued landing page with a bright call-to-action button will result in more conversions than a page that make visitors confused in the labyrinth of multiple shades minus the white space. Consider Cultural Differences Be careful when choosing colors. If your website is targeting a global audience, red might be accepted in some cultures but might create negative feelings in some other culture. In the United States, red is perfect for Valentine''s Day but in a different nation, the same color might signify signs of danger or warning. To infer, it can be said that the color you choose should fit the theme of your business website. If you are a designer, you can use tools like Kuler and COLOURlovers to create your own color palettes, shades and patterns. kuler color palette Are you looking for smart  looking web pages having the apt implementation of color psychology? If  so, you can consider web design services making the right use of  tools for creating best color schemes.