Dudnyk blog
Use color to build and differentiate your brand.
Knowing some basic color theory and doing your homework will help bring your brand to life.
Congratulations―you are about to launch (or relaunch) a product in a competitive category. It’s time to build your brand.
You have spent some serious time analyzing the market situation, gaining medical insights, and developing a strategic launch plan. Now it’s time to turn your attention to the creative and visual aspects of building an effective brand―a brand that will stand out from the crowd.
Evaluate the palette of the marketplace
- Study the brand’s category/marketplace. Which specialty audience(s) is the key target for your brand? Cardiologists, neurologists, PCPs, nephrologists?
- Which other brands are competing for the HCPs’ attention. To help us in our research, we gather brand logos your target audience is being hit with day in and day out.
- Once we pull all the logos together, we take a broad look to see where the logo colors fall on the color wheel. Where do the logos start to blend? We analyze the colors, looking for trends. Do 90% of the logos use blue? Is orange the dominant color? Is there a brand that uses or owns a particular color in the category?
For example, if you were to bring a new GERD product to market targeting PCPs and gastroenterologists, you certainly wouldn’t want to compete with the “purple pill.” You would want your brand to stand out from the crowd. It should pop off the shelf in the sample closet and break through the clutter―in mailboxes, journals, print and digital collateral―that bombards HCPs every day.
Branding through color theory
Once you discover which colors on the color wheel are not being used excessively, you can select the colors that will differentiate your brand.
This is where we get into color theory, which can be a little complicated. Colors are subjective, and the emotional appeal of a color can change depending on your audience. Testing is a good way to confirm that your chosen color accurately reflects brand attributes and speaks to your target audience.
Seeing red in branding
Let’s look at the color red. Red is typically characterized as one of the most powerful colors on the color wheel; however, one person’s perception of red may vary greatly from another person’s. To understand how red is perceived, you need to consider who and where your target audience is located.
- Consider each specialty: red can mean healthy red blood cells to nephrologists, while it could represent aggravated inflammation to rheumatologists.
- In the US, red can symbolize some of our most powerful emotions―love (represented by red valentines, roses, and hearts) and hate (when you’re so mad you’re seeing red).
- Digging deeper, ask yourself if your brand will be marketed only in the US, or will it also be marketed globally? Red can have a different color meaning across global markets. In parts of Asia, red indicates celebration and happiness; in Africa, red can mean death and mourning; and in the Middle East, red can represent good luck and good fortune.
Branding colors should reflect the desired position of your product in the market and be aligned with the brand promise. Once you establish the positioning and the brand promise, you will be able to make a solid recommendation on what your brand color should be. As with all elements of product branding, the color you choose must be consistent in all marketing materials.
Color will play a MAJOR role in building the life of your brand. At the end of the day, it is crucial to choose a color that will represent your brand effectively for long-term success.
For more great information on color theory and branding, check out these posts:
- Biotech brand content in the digital marketing age
- What biotech can learn from the Pepsi logo. Huh?
- It’s launch time: do you know what your position is?
- Biotech brand names: how’d you choose THAT?!
A brand’s color sets the tone for the personality, so it’s critically important, but so basic most firms do it almost without thinking or analyzing. Let Tara do that for you!
Great post Tara! You used an interesting example “do 90% of the logos in your category use blue?” …according to Psychology Today, blue is the world’s favorite color. No matter who you ask, anywhere on the planet, about their favorite color, the response to your query will probably be blue. It’s amazing how impactful and critical color assessments are, and how the right selection is the difference between blending in or making a bold statement. Looking forward to reading more from you!
Great Blog…
When it comes to color theory, like many, I turn to Kobayashi (no, not the competitive eater) – Shigenobu Kobayashi. His analysis is some of the most comprehensive available, and will be able to assist any Brand Manager when deciding if their new brand colors induce thoughts of vigor and youth or instead are quiet and sophisticated.
An interesting tidbit: research has shown that color can be seen differently by different people. So when we are building our color themes, do people consider how a slight pigment perception change can alter someone’s mood? Do people consider those who are color blind? These are all very interesting points to think about for a topic that initially seems simple.
We definitely consider the perceptions people have of colors and the mood certain colors can bring out. There is not much we can do about color blindness in our color selections.
So true, Tara. The brand icons I remember most are almost always the ones where the icon and its colors were visually appealing. When it is time to purchase, those are the products I remember.