How Paint Reflects Your Brand Identity
Branding is everything.
But do you know how paint can help boost your brand identity?
The livelihood of your business or brand is based almost entirely on its marketing. Arguably, everything you do is marketing, from the quality of work you produce to how your team handles customer service interactions. Even the facade of your building can reflect brand identity. After all, would you prefer walking into a building with a shoddy paint job or one that looks bright, clean, and well-maintained?
Both exterior and interior paint can have a huge impact on your workers and customers. If you’re looking for a cost-effective way to improve everything from sales to job satisfaction, consider a fresh coat of paint.
In this article, we’ll explore the science behind color psychology and how paint can make that difference, as well as factors to consider when leveraging your next painting project to reinforce brand identity.
What is Color Psychology?
Whether or not we’re aware of it, color and emotion go hand in hand. There’s truth to phrases like “red with anger” or “green with envy” as well as associations like “royal purple” – or, in the case of old Germany, Prussian blue. Just as colors affect how we feel and interact with the world around us, color psychology – that is, the study of this phenomenon – allows us to understand how to apply colors to evoke these feelings.
How Does Color Psychology Affect Your Brand?
Understanding how colors can be used in brand marketing can improve your business's sales performance and give you a competitive edge. Not only do colors help brands stand out and build identity, but certain colors can attract (and repel) certain types of customers or illustrate emotions tied to the services and products you provide. According to a study conducted by the Pantone Color Institute, color can increase brand recognition by up to 80%. Another study shows that roughly 90% of a customer’s initial judgment is based on color alone.
So why does color hold such sway over us? The logic goes a little something like this:
Color influences how we feel – from warm, invigorating reds, oranges, and yellows to cool teals, blues, and purples.
How we feel influences our behavior – from feeling confident and motivated to relaxed and calm.
Learning how to influence customer behavior through color means you can influence how they engage with your brand and products.
We have a sort of instinct when it comes to color psychology, and each color has positive and negative associations. For instance, red is the color of love, passion, and romance. It can also be the color of danger, violence, and rage. Green usually symbolizes nature, growth, or even money – though, depending on the shade, it can also evoke feelings of envy, decay, and disease.
Because colors as stimuli can have so many meanings, it’s important that you choose the right ones for your brand and, once chosen, that you use them effectively.
How Does Paint Impact Your Brand’s Color Psychology?
What is paint but colors and pigments? Just like the pixels on your website or the ink used on your letterhead, paint is another way to share your brand with your customers. For example, choosing energetic colors like yellow or bright green can spark excitement and creativity. Blues are used to make environments feel more trustworthy and professional. That being said, balance is everything – too much yellow can make people anxious, whereas too much blue and white can feel overly sterile and cold.
No matter what colors you choose, there’s something to be said about a fresh coat of paint. Not only does new paint give you the chance to reimagine your brand, it also breathes new life into a space whose walls might’ve become damaged, worn, or scuffed. By addressing those dings, knicks, and other unsightly spots, you’re conveying to your customers that you care and the business is thriving.
Factors to Thinking About When Choosing Paint for Your Brand Identity
Assuming you’ve already picked out the right colors for your business, making sure the paint you choose for your buildings is an important step in solidifying brand identity. Here are a few questions to ask yourself when figuring out what to paint:
What is the paint’s purpose? Is the paint used to guide people from one place to another (such as in an office building, store, or warehouse)? Is it meant to warn people or call attention to something? Is it used to attract attention from the road as part of a facade or siding or is it used to convey a specific feeling?
How does the paint affect how people feel (both employees and customers)? What emotions do you want your employees and customers to feel? Do you want to energize them or calm them down?
Does the paint enhance my business’s image – or detract from it? Are you using colors that fit your services, brand, and the emotions you want your workers or customers to feel? Are you keeping colors balanced to promote a sense of order, professionalism, and trustworthiness?
Are you applying your colors consistently? If your employees at the front who interact with customers wear a uniform, how does the color of the environment enhance (or detract) from what they’re wearing (for instance, Target employees all wear shades of red, matching the brand, signage, and store interior; Best Buy does this with blues or, with its Geek Squad, black, white, and a little bit of orange)?
Enhance Your Brand Identity with Icon Painting
Color psychology can be a useful tool to make your brand stand out among the competition. With that in mind, painting can be a cost-effective way to make the most of using color to encourage certain feelings and behaviors you want your employees and customers to have. Whether you recently rebranded or just need a new coat of paint to liven things up, reach out to the experts at Icon Painting today if you need help with your next commercial painting project.