Brent Niemuth, President/CCO
Sadly, we’ve lost a couple more music legends recently—Merle Haggard and Prince. It’s the latter I’d like to talk about. There is no doubt that Prince was a musical genius. And there are actually many branding lessons we could learn from him. The importance of being different, of standing out, of being true to who you are, regardless of trends. The man had his own color, for crying out loud! And that’s what I’d like to focus on today—the impact and importance of color.
When you think of Prince, you think of the color purple. He owned it. That unique color actually helped define who he was as an artist. Think of your brand. Does it own a color?
Research shows that color increases brand recognition by 80%. For instance, when we think of UPS, we think of the color brown. When we think of Home Depot, orange comes to mind. Starbucks is green. Coca-Cola, Target (and J.Schmid) are red. These colors are forever linked with these brands. We even use color to identify political parties—red states and blue states.
But color goes way beyond just a visual identifier. Colors have an effect on our brains, as well. We react emotionally to certain colors. Red is the color of passion and love. When we see it, our heart rate actually increases. It’s also the most visible of any color in the spectrum, meaning, it stands out the most. Yellow is considered a happy color because when we see it, our brain releases a chemical that makes us feel happier. Green is soothing and calming and often associated with nature. Blue is the most popular color in the rainbow and also the most trusted. If your brand wants to be considered trustworthy, you might consider using the color blue. Black is the color of power and strength. And purple is the color of royalty.
Which brings me back to Prince. He used color to build his brand. Purple became the visual link between himself and his audience. It was more than just a color. It was a philosophy. How does your brand use color to better connect with your audience? Or is it simply an afterthought?
Merle Haggard and Prince were both musical legends. Both will be missed. But Merle didn’t have his own color. Just sayin’.
Tags: branding, Prince