While we might not always think about it, colour, and more specifically, its effect on our customers, can have a big impact on the success of your business and marketing strategies.
For decades, psychologists have studied the impact of colour on our engagement and receptiveness to products as individuals all react to colours differently, and we all take away different perceptions when we see a certain colour.
So with all this in mind, it’s important to think about how you can incorporate colours into your custom packaging, as this can trigger an emotional response in your customer’s brains and ensure when they see a colour, that they’ll think of your brand.
To make this easier, The Packaging Company has compiled this complete guide to choosing the best colours for your packaging.
Think About Your Target Audience/Buyers
Before you start planning out your colour palette, you’ll first need to think of your buyers and audience to ensure you’re making the right colour choices. Depending on your audience’s background, gender, age and location, they’ll likely have colour preferences that represent their identity.
When conducting your analytics about your audience, consider thinking about what colours your audience is likely to respond to. For example, if you have an audience that is largely made up of children, you can use bright colours to entice their excitable minds!
Think About Cultural Preferences
Different cultures will have different attitudes to colours, so it’s a good idea to research your audience and understand their cultural background to tailor your colour strategy to this. For example, some cultures will see certain colours as good luck (such as China, which regards red as a lucky colour).
Even western cultures use colour to represent certain things, such as black, for mourning and sadness. Not only is being wary of cultural significance integral for tailoring your marketing, but it’s also important for being culturally sensitive. You’ll want to avoid marketing your products and packaging with colours that cultures may regard as offensive or insensitive.
What Is The Emotion You Are Trying To Provoke With Your Packaging?
The second thing that you’ll need to think about is what you’re trying to provoke in your customers when they receive a package. This will help guide your colour choice and increase your chances of sparking the right emotion for your brand.
For example, if you’re trying to inspire joy or excitement, use a bright colour like yellow, which is commonly associated with happiness. If you’re trying to give the impression that you want to market yourself as an ultra-sleek and sophisticated brand, then monochrome colours like black or white are your friend!
Make Sure Your Packaging Stays Consistent
Even if you have super exciting ideas when it comes to picking colours for your packaging, it’s best to ensure that your branding design, fonts and brand colours stay consistent with your packaging choices.
The aim here is to ensure that your customers associate colours with your specific brand, and confusing colours, branding, fonts and designs will make it much harder for them to associate with your brand.
Some Colour Theory To Consider
If you’re artistically inclined, you’ve likely heard of colour theory before. If you’re a colour theory novice, we’ll explain it to you. Colour theory is essentially a set of guidelines that professionals like graphic designers use to communicate a message by using a colour scheme.
That means that this guidance applies to using colours that complement each other and create visual effects. Colour theory essentially combines colours based on the colour wheel to ensure colours perfectly complement each other instead of clashing or cancelling each other out.
This is very important to think about when you’re creating your packaging, as you’ll want to use colours that go together perfectly and don’t fight for attention.
The colour wheel and theory tie in directly with colour psychology and the impact that colours have on your customer’s perception of your brand.
The Psychology Of Colours
It might seem silly to think that colours have a deep and meaningful impact on the brain, but colours have great psychological significance. Almost every colour sparks some sort of association in people’s brains, be that associating colours with happiness, sadness, sophistication or glee! Here are some examples of colour psychology that you can use as guidance for your packaging:
White
Lots of world-famous brands use white as their primary branding colour. Companies like Apple have coined a simple white colour to ensure their products speak for themselves. White typically symbolizes simplicity and elegance to a customer.
Blue
While some may view it as a sad colour, blue is commonly associated with elegance and luxury, hence the name ‘Royal Blue’, which is commonly associated with a dress made for Queen Charlotte in the 18th century. For the most part, customers will look at blue and think of calmness and dependability, making this a great colour to use for palettes for self-care and pampering products.
Orange
Orange is a bold colour choice, so it’s the perfect option for brands wanting to make a statement and profile themselves as energetic and confident. Again, many world-famous brands like Fanta use orange as a way of grabbing their customer’s attention!
Creating Great Colour Schemes For Your Product
Creating a colour scheme can be tough, especially if you’re not artistically inclined, but there are some ways you can optimize your colour scheme choices to make your products stand out. Here are some top tips:
- Use complimentary colours to ensure your packaging isn’t overwhelming to look at
- Play around with tints and hues to create interesting colour combinations and blends
- Try using colour gradients to blend colours seamlessly together
- Create dynamic patterns with colour to make your packaging more engaging
- Use mood as your inspiration
- Create as many designs as you can
Looking For Great Custom Packaging Options? Contact The Packaging Company Today!
Are you looking for great custom packaging options that help you communicate your brand identity to customers? Look no further than The Packaging Company.
The Packaging Company provides customers with high-quality packaging products and exemplary customer service, making your product packaging a breeze! Our custom shop makes it easier than ever to put your unique stamp on your packaging, so check out our shop now to find out more information!
