Have you ever walked into a restaurant or store and wondered if there was a reason why they painted their store that color? Or, perhaps, why they incorporated a certain color into their logo? Well, the truth of the matter is that there is a reason. National multi-million and billion dollars companies spend a small fortune on marketing and branding for their stores, collateral, websites and products. The selection of colors for these items is a science that looks at a wide array of factors to determine the best colors to achieve the company’s goals.
How Color Affects Businesses
Color theory is not always a black-and-white topic (pun intended). Colors reflect certain emotions fairly consistently within a culture, but when you start venturing outside of these borders, things get turned on their heads. When you visit fast food restaurants you will often see red in the brand or logo, as well as red or yellow accents throughout the dining area. Subliminally, these bright colors create a sense of urgency that causes most people to eat faster and therefore leave quicker, allowing the restaurant to serve more customers.
A Global Perspective
In the United States (and other areas of the world), the color red lands on multiple places on the emotional scale. Depending on its context, it can be associated with war or danger (a fire, stop sign, or red light). But in a different context it can be related to love and passion (hearts and roses). Red is also seen as an important color as it stands out, demands attention, and is seen as important (think red carpets). However, as you get outside of our culture, things change drastically. For example, while white is the traditional dress color for American brides, in India brides wear red. In America, black and dark colors are often associated with mourning, but in South Africa mourning is associated with red and in China with yellow!
Colors in Web Design
Whether you like it or not, the colors incorporated in your website will speak to your potential clients. We used to ask our new customers what colors they want on their site, but over the years this question has evolved into questions about your customers’ demographics and the type of emotion you want to evoke in your website visitors. This approach to website design and color selection allows us to determine colors that accurately and effectively set the right emotional tone and help lead potential customers through the sales funnel.
How Advantage Internet Marketing Uses Color
Blue is the most popular color on the internet. Why? Because with little to no face-to-face contact in an online environment, the sense of honesty, loyalty and trust evoked by the color blue is highly desired. You will see many blue sites in our portfolio for this reason. Green is associated with nature, growth and recycling, and can be seen in some of our clients’ websites like Vin’s Total Care Landscaping and Biomedical Waste Services. White is also a common color throughout our designs and was paired exceptionally well with yellow to create a clean and fresh (think lemons) feel for Immaculate Clean. This list goes on and on.
While for some companies color can be an afterthought or just a small part of the process, we understand its importance and work to find your company’s place on the color wheel. If you’re looking for a Maryland Web Design company that can guide you through the process of designing a website that not only looks good, but generates new leads for your company, give us a call today to learn how we can help or fill out the form below.