Color Makes an Impact

An insightful article from the photo-editing website, Canva, explained the importance of color to brand's logo or identity. The article explained that "A brand's logo and visual identity will comprise a number of visual cues, such as shapes, symbols, number, and words. But the number one visual component that people remember most is color. In fact, color increases brand recognition by up to 80% (Gross, 2018). To explore the importance of color and a brand's visual identity, we are going to look at five advertisements that use color too, firstly, help the brand's visual identity; but to also provide its audience with emotion and to communicate the brand's or the product's message.

1.  Heat Perfume by Beyonce 

Although Beyonce's Heat perfume is not from a certain company, the advertisement was created to help boost Beyonce's personal brand. This was the singer's first perfume, so the advertisement needed to be promoted with colors that excite and attract her audience. Thus, the color red was used to promote the perfume. The color red is commonly considered a "bright, warm color that evokes strong emotions (Cherry, 2018c)". Similarly, Beyonce is a singer who evokes strong emotions in her videos, music, and overall presence. Therefore, the advertisement uses the color red to its advantage; the red in the title of the perfume, the bottle, and Beyonce's dress all express intensity, passion, and energy. (Cherry, 2018c)  These emotions are exactly what Beyonce's brand wanted her audience to feel when they view the advertisement, which makes the use of the color red an excellent choice.

2. Dolce & Gabbana 

This foundation advertisment from Dolce and Gabbana uses white undertones and highlights to express a fresh, classic, and clean feel for their new foundation. Foundation is used to cover blemishes and an uneven skin tone, which could be part of the reason why the brand used the color as the advertisement's undertone and highlight over the black background. This undertone and highlight captures the audience's attention and provides a calm, luxurious feeling. Moreover, the color white can be associated with youth or modernity (Cherry, 2018d). In addition, the color white symbolizes a "blank slate, a new beginning or a fresh start (Cherry, 2018d)". Again, this symbolism makes is perfect for the product. A woman must use foundation to give her face a fresh start before she applies additional makeup to finalize her look. Thus, white was another excellent choice for Dolce and Gabbana to use to promote their new product.

3. Proactive

Proactive takes on a different target market than Beyonce or Dolce and Gabbana. Proactive is a brand that is targeted towards a teenage audience who are self-conscious about their skin and appearance. Thus, Proactive uses the color green as this advertisment's main font color. The color green represents "tranquility, good luck, health (Cherry, 2018b)". Which is feeling a teenager needs when they are worrying about a various issues that are happening in their lives, not only their skin. Moreover, this shade of green is friendly, inviting, and isn't necessarily exclusive to a male or female. This color helps Proactiv market to teenagers of all genders and helps them feel relaxed and calm when they ask their parents to puchase the skin care set for them.

4. Garnier

 To follow the tranquil and calm emotion that Proactiv wants its audience to feel, Garnier wants their audience to feel the same. This ad uses two different shades of green to as the color of the text with a touch of blue behind the head of the face model. Again, green is a color that expresses calmness but it also can express a feeling of hopefulness and optimism (Cherry, 2018b). Having the words "clean skin" and "better skin" in green, adds a feeling of hopefulness and ultimately trust in the subconcious of the audience to try the brand. The overall look of this ad is calming and refreshing. Again, it provides its audience with the hope that the product will be calming and refreshing on their skin, which is exact message that Garnier wants to give to their audience. 

 

5. Jergens

Last but certainly not least, Jergens uses warm brown undertones in their skin care ad. Brown is a color that evokes a sense of strength and reliability (Cherry, 2017a). In addition, brown represents warmth, comfort, and security (Cherry, 2017a). Therefore, Jergens wanted their audience to feel the warm, strength, and stability that their lotion will provide to their audience's skin. The correlation between the color and the product is very strong and it is much appreciated as it accurately represents the product. In addition, the white text attracts the eye and promotes an alert feeling that contrasts with the mood from the brown color. Overall, this was another meaningful ad that uses color to its advantage.

 

 

 

 

 

References
Cherry, K. (2017a, December 05). What's Your Psychological Reaction to the Color Brown? Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/the-color-psychology-of-brown-2795816  

 Cherry, K. (2018b, January 15). How Does the Color Green Impact Mood and Behavior? Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/color-psychology-green-2795817 

 Cherry, K. (2018c, January 6). Color Psychology: What Does Red Mean? Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/the-color-psychology-of-red-2795821

 Cherry, K. (2018d, June 15). The Color Psychology of White. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/color-psychology-white-2795822

Gross, R. (2018, August 16). Color meaning and symbolism: How to use the power of color in your branding – Learn. Retrieved from https://www.canva.com/learn/color-meanings-symbolism/