Diving into the Rainbow: The Role of Colors in Marketing

Ever wondered why certain brands have an unexplainable allure? It might not just be their product line or service offerings; it might be the mesmerizing play of colors in their logos and advertisements. Welcome to an illuminating journey through the rainbow with me, your host, Tommy Heitz, as we unravel the deep-rooted psychological impacts of colors in marketing. We'll unearth the hidden messages behind the color choices of popular brands, revealing how colors can shape our emotions, influence our behaviors, and even dictate our purchasing decisions.

From the fiery red of Coca-Cola invoking passion to Facebook's serene blue symbolizing trust, we'll dissect the color codes of renowned brands, making you see advertisements in a whole new light. You'll learn why fast-food chains rarely deviate from the red-yellow color scheme, how Tiffany Blue sets expectations of luxury, and why Nike banks on the classic black and white. It's not just about adding vibrancy; it's a finely tuned psychological strategy, a hidden war waged on the canvas of consumer consciousness. Prepare to be color struck!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Do you ever lift your head up from your phone, look around and think to yourself my God, everything is weird. Well, we do A lot. This is the Observation Station, a unique, entertaining and hilarious podcast. If we observe it, we talk about it. Anything and everything, anything and everything. Let's get weird and let's have some fun. This is the Observation Station and now your host, tommy Heights.

Speaker 2: 0:45

Hello and welcome back to the Observation Station, your go-to podcast for enlightening and amusing perspectives on a multitude of topics. I'm your host, tommy Heights. Today's episode is going to add a splash of color to your life as we dive into the powerful emotion and the effects of different colors can have on us. Colors are not just visual stimuli. They evoke feelings, thoughts and even influence on our behavior. Let's look how this unfolds. I'm just going to give you different color shades and then I can just say, hey, look, maybe this is a different way of looking at it. Hence the Observation Station. I'm going to give you just a couple of colors. We're going to have it where the companies that use these colors to evoke the emotional feelings with marketing, advertisement commercials what have you? These are the reasons now that when you go out into public and say, oh, I never even was noticing, that restaurant and this fast food and that fast food all use the same colors. So let's look at red.

Speaker 2: 1:58

Red is often associated with intensity. It's a color that can evoke strong emotions, ranging from passion and love to anger and danger. Also, it means stop, and I don't want to do that in Miami because everybody's in a race down 95 and the last thing that you need is red tail lights slamming their brakes on you or a red light stopping you in gridlock traffic. So we don't want red. So in Spain, the color red symbolically powerful in its representation of life and passion, especially evident in its arts and festivals.

Speaker 2: 2:38

Number two blue. This color generally is perceived as calming and serene. In various European cultures, blue signifies trust and loyalty. It's no wonder that corporate logos often utilize blue to invoke a sense of reliability. Three yellow. Universally associated with sunshine and warmth, yellow often brings feelings of happiness and joy. However, in excess it can lead to feelings of caution or even anxiety.

Speaker 2: 3:11

Number four green. Representing nature and tranquility. Green brings about feelings of renewal and growth. Its significant color and many Hispanic celebrations that focus on life and family Also making that green and the other thing from red it's green to go. So green is great. That's my favorite color. I love it where just anything green is awesome. So I've never heard anything that is with the color of green and it's like, oh, that's a bad thing. You know from what I can't think of anything. So number five purple.

Speaker 2: 3:52

Historically tied to royalty, and it exudes luxury and sophistication. It also tends to evoke creativity, with some imagination also. Number six is black and all the oh. It often represents death and mourning. Black signifies elegance, formality and mystery. For instance, in fashion capitals like Milan, black is a staple which is equated with a timeless style. I love black because it can go with anything. You can have something that is crazy in colors, because sometimes I wear a Koogee sweater or a Robert Graham, which is really funky colors. But if you have maybe like a black shirt but the shorts are crazy and you have black shoes, you're like whoa, that is the real pop of color. You don't wanna have it where your eyes are going too many directions with all these patterns on your clothes.

Speaker 2: 4:51

Number seven white. Associated with purity and simplicity, white often brings feelings of cleanliness and innocence, so a lot of Hispanic and Europeans will play. It plays a significant role in the rituals and ceremonies denoting new beginnings. Also, brides wear white. Gowns don't wear white after Labor Day. So number eight is orange. This color is generally linked to enthusiasm and excitement, but in some cultures it can represent change with adaptability. Finally, number nine is pink. Soft and delicate Pink often evokes feelings of love and tenderness, but also can signify vulnerability. So there's a lot of different things I've given you in the main emotions that it will evoke.

Speaker 2: 5:56

What are some of the colors that you see daily, which are in advertisements or applications on our phone, anything that has to do with marketing or logos? This is where those colors come into play. A lot of people aren't looking at this too much because they just see the same logo over and over and over again. Subconsciously, they're thinking a certain emotion when they see, for instance, coca-cola's red. So you ever wonder why Coca-Cola's logo is red. It captures your attention and stirs emotion. It evokes excitement, passion and urgency. Gotta have a Coke right now. Give me the Coke. During Christmas season. The iconic Coca-Cola red even seems to fuse seamlessly with the holiday spirit. It makes you feel nostalgic, festive. I mean, look who doesn't love it? When they just see that Coca-Cola red slapped on anything, that logo, it just makes it just seem like official for some reason.

Speaker 2: 6:57

So another app that we use all the time Facebook. So Facebook has blue for the logo and it uses a calming blue that stands for trust, reliability and focus. So it reduces the stress levels, allowing the users on Facebook to feel comfortable while sharing personal info, and the specific shade is synonymous with the brand it's often referred to as Facebook blue. So that's the shade right there. Maybe if you go to Home Depot they'll match that color for you. So number three is McDonald's yellow and red. And it's not just McDonald's. You can see like Wendy's Burger King not so much, but Wendy's McDonald's I just look at like Chick-fil-A, hardee's Jack in the Box. A lot of these fast food restaurants utilize that red and yellow color scheme because that is where your pallets, like salivating, say, ooh, my hunger is just coming out here.

Speaker 2: 8:02

And for the ladies out there, tiffany and company's Turquoise Blue, the iconic blue. It speaks of elegance, refinement and sophistication. So the Tiffany blue has become so iconic that just the side of the Tiffany blue box instantly is just expectations of luxury coming out of it. It's actually a pretty cool color. So something that I'm seeing right now is that the Tiffany and company Turquoise Blue is a specific thing to say. You could see that color from a mile away and know the company that it's synonymous with. The same, with John Deere. You can see like that green yellow kind of color palette there. So the John Deere green. The company uses green to represent durability, trustworthiness and the environment. So it's no surprise that the brand has become synonymous with reliable farming equipment. John Deere is definitely not gonna be changing its colors. That's when you see other companies like Case or I wouldn't know too many others, but like the red. So John Deere, green is just something that is never gonna change.

Speaker 2: 9:20

Nike's black and white. So they effectively use like a black and white color scheme to present a timeless, stylish, versatile look. So black indicates strength, authority and purity. So the simplicity that the Nike logo has and then you see a lot of black and white attracts the wide range of consumers. So it's more of a general consumer base. Instead of saying, hey, we're looking for a niche product for this kind of person to be buying Some brands do that Nike's just saying, hey, let's cast a wide net to as many people as possible, that way that we can get a lot of different business from people that are young, old and everybody in between. Finally, we have Amazon's Orange. So Amazon uses the cheerful orange in the logo to signify warmth, enthusiasm and a touch of fun. The orange arrow pointing from A to Z also suggests a comprehensive range of products.

Speaker 2: 10:23

So just wanting to have it where you see, the strategic use of color in advertising is an underestimated power player in the realm of consumer behavior. It's not just about looking pretty, it's about psychological warfare on the canvas of consumer consciousness. So in business, this is a huge trade to have people to know what am I putting out there for my logo. With any of these companies, they're gonna say what is it in marketing that I need to catch a consumer's eye? A lot of times people are just so drawn by certain color palettes all the time. With certain industries you see it recycled a lot. So maybe with a, I would say, coffee, you would see a lot of green and blue. That is I can't say exactly what like a combination is. You say, oh well, when you take a green and a blue and then you mix it together, it creates this. That's all up to a marketing person. They see what the person in the company says. I want to get this consumer based. 25 to 40 single blah, blah, blah, blah. And then they would do some market research and saying, okay, well, these companies are successful. These aren't. What are the marketing schemes and palettes that they use? That's a huge part of why companies get paid millions and millions of dollars to do a breakdown for different commercials. They get hired to do advertising. These are big business opportunities for people to say I know how to bring in that specific customer base by using these colors, so wanting to have it where? I wrap it up here.

Speaker 2: 12:14

I just wanted to say, if you wanted to have a side note from me as the observation station, if you do love colors with different kinds of more of a creative way of putting it down on paper, literally. I like to get adult coloring books. I buy mine on Amazon. Just make sure to have proper colored pencils. So the brand that I get is called Faber Castell. They're made in Germany. They are pricey I know that they're about $2.50 a pencil or two bucks If you go to an art store.

Speaker 2: 12:50

But the whole point of making these different designs is to really make your mind work. To say, with all these patterns it's not like a little kid's coloring book. That's pretty simple. You just have really big blocks and you can just color green and blue and blah. These are a bunch of small like flowers that have four or five different ways you can color it. It's difficult to explain unless you see these adult coloring books in front of you. But many people that are listening to this I've already seen them.

Speaker 2: 13:22

But that is a really cool way of saying hey look, I love this niche, say, hey, cars, okay, you get a cars coloring book and you can make the car the colors that you want. So it's really just something to say let's make it. Where you take a little bit more notice to say wait a minute, I didn't even know that all these companies were hooking me in, or just like hacking my brain to say I need to buy this, it's really cool. Once you take a look outside into the world, go into a mall and see all the different ways that people put up their window shopping and their window displays, you can really see what is the demographic of client the store wants to get. If it's just throwing a bunch of crazy stuff there and it doesn't look very sophisticated, they're just going for just kind of a whimsical person. You know, if you go for the suits, it's very muted. You have like the black suits, navy suits and very professional, unless it's like a Zara or something where it's looking for more of a, you know, young man, high school or something like that to purchase there.

Speaker 2: 14:34

So I wanted to have it where I ramped it up, just taking it into account that our next episode will delve into the psychology behind pricing strategies. The thing is, why does $9.99 seems so much less than just straight, flat $10? Is the first digit really that powerful? So, corporate pricing strategies. Now, with the inflation, I'm gonna going to tell you how things work, what you need to look out for, especially when you're a consumer that has a budget or no budget at all. It's just best to know, as a smart consumer, what you're looking into. So thanks for tuning into the observation station. I'm Tommy Heights. Look forward to adding more color to your intellectual palette. Until next time, adios, girls, guys and everybody in between. All right, take it easy.

Speaker 1: 15:35

You've been listening to the observation station. We find everyday life and everyday situations hilarious. We hope you've enjoyed the show. We know we had a blast. Make sure to like, rate and review and be sure to tell a friend about the show. That would help too. See you next time on the observation station. You know what?

Speaker 2: 15:59

well, we've been waiting a couple months. No-transcript.