There are those who say that color in marketing materials should be used with wild abandon and there are those who say that color in marketing materials should be used sparingly but effectively. Regardless of which side of the fence resonates with your beliefs, the decisions you make about color in your marketing materials matters.
Pick colors that appeals to your clientele. The solid colors that might be effective for professionals practicing law may prove disastrous for a night club, and conversely, the neon colors that might work well for a nightclub may prove disastrous for someone in a more staid profession.
If you think back to the board game, Monopoly, you get the idea. The plush properties of Pacific Avenue, North Carolina Avenue, and Pennsylvania Avenue were a lush green, and the luxurious properties of Park Place and Boardwalk were a brilliant blue. The lower the dollar value on the property, the more subdued the color. The least expensive properties of Baltic Avenue and Mediterranean Avenue were saddle brown.
In other words, the colors were already associated with feelings and those associations were built into the original board game.
Monopoly (which was originally named The Landlord’s Game, and self-published by Elizabeth Phillips in the early 1900s) was originally intended to explain American writer, politician and political economist, Henry George’s single tax theory. Park Place showcased examples of Brooklyn’s richly diverse Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival style rowhouse architecture with iron stoop railings, and first and second story window openings with quoined surrounds. By the time the Roaring 20s hit New York, properties on Park Place were being sold for $200,000 (the equivalent of about $9.4 million in today’s dollars I’m told by a few of my financial guru friends). It’s easy to see how such a vibrant blue could be associated with financial affluence.
Even today, Park Place leaves the impression of glamor and money, while the impression of Baltic Avenue is one that speaks well of the hard work that goes into every day living in New York City. For example, in Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant’s novel, UPTOWN, published in 2010 by a division of Simon & Schuster, the Prologue has this (and only this) to say as an opening line:
“. . . quite a coup for the family business — turning Baltic Avenue into Park Place.”
Color is meant to spark an emotional response, so you want to make sure that the colors you choose in business are going to spark the emotional response that will deliver the best reaction. Darker colors tend to be more serious whereas lighter colors tend to be more light-hearted and easy-going. Cool colors tend to calm people down and warm colors tend to get people going.
Whatever you choose for marketing, make sure that they are compatible (if not identical) to the colors you use elsewhere in your business. If your website gravitates towards greens and blues, don’t forget to tie that in with other marketing materials and don’t forget to have the colors that are part of your marketing materials tie in with your website colors. Do I mean you should stick with only greens and blues? Of course not. But if you add another color or two, pick colors that are going to blend well with the colors already chosen. For some, yellows work well with greens and blues; for others, purples work well with greens and blues.
It’s important to take the matter of colors seriously because whatever colors you choose, you will be conveying a message albeit a subliminal message. Make sure the message those colors send out is one that is consistent with your business.
Bottom line: The rules you follow when choosing colors are the same that apply to choosing the right font — maximum impact and minimum clutter.
Elyse Bruce
Elyse Bruce 