Think of a color, any color, perhaps it’s your absolute favorite color, and according to statistics, and especially from a psychological standpoint, your choice is most likely blue. Although it’s favored more by men, rather than women, it’s still the most popular color found throughout the world. Now imagine a brand name, especially a tremendously successful and powerful online force, that’s associated with this particular hue.
Is it Facebook that immediately comes to mind? Perhaps it’s Skype that pops into our brains, even Twitter shares this popular hue that is instantly recognizable by this popular color. Be it iconic and weirdly ironic, all of these worldwide, mobile conglomerates are using this instantly recognizable color in association with their powerful brands.
While it’s easily imaginable as a happy accident, merely a coincidence or simply choosing a color that’s universally appealing to almost everyone, especially on a global level … but isn’t there something more to this puzzling, picture puzzle when it comes to marketing and branding?
There must be more than meets the eye (pardon the pun), when it comes to these color choices. Can connecting these colored dots with today’s consumers, especially on an emotional and cultural level, bring us more success in branding?
ARE THERE GENDER BENDERS?
Most of us associate the color of blue with masculinity and the birth of baby boys, while little girls and women are commonly branded and targeted with the frilly shade of pink. But when it comes to reaching all of our audiences today, regardless of their gender, branding goes far beyond these traditional, stereotypical labels and choices when it comes to using different tints and hues in order to connect more successfully with today’s online crowd.
For the sake of argument, let’s imagine another, more gender neutral-color, like green for instance. Do more men trend towards thoughts of money, wealth and power when compared to women, who may drift towards loftier ideas of Christmas, green grass and the environment? It all depends upon some unique circumstances, the individuals involved and many other variables.
Traditionally speaking, these outdated, antiquated perceptions and concepts may ring true in some cases, but instead, let’s examine them from a deeper and much broader perspective.
IS RED STILL A POWER COLOR?
Now let’s take a look at one of the strongest, most powerful and often used of our primary colors .. RED. What’s the first thing you think of … a stop sign, anger, blood, rage, passion, love or something entirely different. Although the color red may have a negative connotation attached to it, (Natzi Germany and the communist reguime may come to mind), in many cultures it’s seen as a symbol that’s completely the opposite of our past (or current), reactions, views, opinions and concepts.
In many Asian communities, brides often wear this seemingly unorthodox color on their wedding day as a celebratory shade, which is conjoined with happiness, joy and hope for the future. In this instance, think of going to your favorite Chinese restaurant, isn’t the decor usually drenched in red and gold? In their culture, both of these shades are synonymous with prosperity, wealth and positive thoughts towards a successful future.
IS YELLOW REALLY MELLOW?
Most of us western folk see the color yellow as a positive, happy-go-lucky, especially bright tint that is tied to smiley faces, butterflies and rainbows and is especially connective with children, youth and energy. If you think of both red and yellow tied together, the fast-food chain McDonald’s may come to mind, as they’ve been successfully using these two primary colors to attract children (and their parents) to their restaurants for generations.
But did you know that in the Middle East, especially Egypt and some Latin American cultures, the color yellow is reserved for death and mourning. Well, so much for that sunshiney feeling of joy and youth. But conversely, yellow, or more precisely gold, can often be seen as a sign of royalty, wealth, everlasting life and prosperity. Ironic, isn’t it?
So there’s obviously much more to consider when it comes to color choices, psychology, branding and crossing cultural differences when it comes to connecting with both our global and local audiences. Taking everything into consideration, when it comes to this important choice involving branding and marketing, a simple palette of color choices can often make a huge difference in questioning consumer’s responses and acceptance of our all-important image.
When you think about it, internet giant Google chose every color in the rainbow to represent their brand and reigns supreme online to this day. Did they hit a home run by picking all the primary and secondary choices available and appeal to audiences everywhere? Kinda looks that way, doesn’t it? But that won’t work in every circumstance.
About Author:
Nick Rojas is a business consultant and writer who lives in Los Angeles and Chicago. He has consulted small and medium-sized enterprises for over twenty years. He has contributed articles to Visual.ly, Entrepreneur, and TechCrunch. You can follow him on Twitter @NickARojas,. or you can reach him at NickAndrewRojas@gmail.com.
You’ve created your business profile and are ready to post content. But what kind of social media marketing content should you post that gets your audience interested? To find out the things that attract your audience, you need to keep customer psychology in mind. Without understanding their mindset, you can’t plan your content.
Here’s a quick video with some folks discussing the psychology of social media a bit deeper.
The Importance of Understanding Customer Psychology
Emotions are important for developing long term customer relationships. When we handle your social media marketing campaign, we try to build bonds instead of driving pure sales. We understand what they’re thinking and provide them the kind of content they want. This way, we create strong and long-lasting bonds.
Your consumers are humans, and they think not just practically but also emotionally. When your campaign touches their emotional aspect, it will have a better effect for the brand value. It is often seen that when there is a huge competition in a certain industry, customers make their decisions based on emotions.
If you’re already running a social media marketing campaign, make sure that you understand customer psychology. Positive emotions linked to your brand can drive in huge ROI.
People take several decisions based on their emotions. Emotions are the elements that keep us motivated to go that extra mile to achieve our goals. If your marketing managers are on a different wavelength, your social media campaign cannot be a success.
As social media marketing experts, we understand that conversion is a process and not a single moment. It needs the entire social marketing funnel, and can’t be defined in a particular timeframe in which a customer committed to a sale.
At Shout, our priority is to develop long term relationships. Of course, sales are important, but they come later. The focus of present day marketing should be on building relations with customers.
We engage their senses.
The heart of social media marketing lies in quality content. This needs imagination and creativity. We create content that engages their senses. This type of content doesn’t have to be complex or expensive – even a simple soundtrack can leave a lasting impression on your customers.
We build a brand personality.
Personalities are unique to people. We love/hate people because of their personalities. Can your brand have a personality of its own? Yes, it can. Your brand personality can be anything you want – serious, fun-loving, professional, or a combination of various characteristics. We create a unique personality for your brand and make sure all posts reflect this personality.
And we do all these things without being cheesy – we welcome feedback, we are honest, and we remember the preferences of the audience. We are able to create viral content because we understand that emotions make things go viral.
We help customers develop emotional bonds with your brand. This is done by delivering them the right content by understanding their mindset. No social media marketing campaign can become successful without connecting with the audience on an emotional level. At Shout, we are passionate people who understand this fact and make sure your customers fall in love with your brand.
Check out this cool infographic from the folks at Pardot.com
