You can spend weeks, months, and years building what you perceive to be THE perfect company, but if your logo and branding flatter to deceive then it’s likely you’ll struggle to build credibility or hold greater influence over your market.
The power of colour in marketing is well documented – and despite having 4 other senses – 80% of all information our brains process on a daily basis comes straight from our eyes. Furthermore, 80% of customers interviewed in a survey from entrepreneur.com said colour gives brands that ‘memorable stamp of recognition’.
So if we’re such visual beings, is there something deep-seated in why SO many fast-food chains across the globe have adopted the colour red in their logos? According to further research on entrepreneur.com the colour red evokes a sense of urgency, and has the innate ability to whet our appetite. Pair both of those feelings together, and what do you get? A hungry customer.
Allegedly, the human race has a special history and love affair with the colour red. It just so happens to be one of the first colours primitive homo-sapiens thought important enough to name. In fact, there were names for “white”, “black” and “red” – but others like blue failed to show up until thousands of years later.
Could this deep connection with red really be a genuine reason why today’s fast-food companies are choosing and using it in their branding?
Well, red is also widely considered as a ‘buying’ colour, as it demands attention and instantly draws attention. When used sparingly the colour red has been found to stimulate a higher rate of sales, hence why content referring to special offers or price cuts are often accented with red. This, paired the aforementioned sense or urgency and appetite, if true, are surely huge and deciding factors in adopting red as a primary colour in their logos.
According to Walter Graff, author of the Psychology of Colour, red also has the effect of stimulating people to make quick decisions and increase expectations. That’s one of the reasons why it’s a favourite colour scheme in casinos. It’s an attention grabber.
However, red is not all good. When overused red can be off-putting to more subdued customers. Red hues are also associated with danger or mistakes, and can often provoke a physical reaction by raising blood pressure. Red is also associated with making time slow down (i.e. stopping) and is often used in road signs.
In our experience, the purpose of colour in a logo is to enlighten and inform an audience, and therefore it requires a certain level of precision when it comes to choosing a suitable palette for a company’s logo. Colour often shouts, and fast-food chains will love that about red, but it’s important that it also speaks to viewers in conversational and intelligent ways, particularly in the fields of packaging, advertising and branding where colour dialogues are unique. What it really comes down to with colour attraction is most likely a derivation from your experiences with said colour or brand.
Indeed, the aim of this post wasn’t for you to slyly smile the next time you see a red fast-food logo and think ‘nearly got me you scoundrels!’ – but rather, to be more aware of the mentality behind decisions regarding such details.
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