Choosing Your Store's Colors

The Color of Your Brand is an Essential Character In Your Brand Story

After talking on the phone with my new jewelry interior design client, we started to discuss the color of their brand, and how they wanted to change the color after years of having their brand color.

This was so important to my overall interior design concept for their entire jewelry store look and feel. I told them that the teal blue used with the Tiffany Jewelry brand, red can of Coca-Cola, and the red/yellow arches of McDonalds are defining features of each company. In each instance, color is the predominant element of identification and association with their brand. Color enables us to instantly recognize and draw emotional associations to a brand of each retail store.

When choosing a color to represent your brand, you must think far beyond your personal, subjective preferences. Visual perception is the primary sense humans have for exploring and making sense of their environment. Once we humans identify a color, we instantly have a chemical reaction in our brain that produces an emotional response.

Colors That Pop

Many stores are known for their distinctive colors. At right, a striking blue from Waterfall Jewelers. On opposite page, Tiffany’s famous hue.

This response triggers a multitude of thoughts, memories and associations to people, places and events. Color affects us in profound ways. Our brains are designed to respond to color. This all happens instantly under our conscious awareness. Color sets the mood of brand expression, and more importantly, creates mental associations to the meaning of your brand within the context of the world it lives in. This fact ties in to the interior design environment of the overall space.

To convey a simple idea of meaning and differentiation requires you select a color that properly fits your strategic positioning. Selecting a color (and color scheme) for your brand must represent the clients emotional associations and desires, and the value proposition or promise your brand brings to those desires. Properly chosen colors will define your brand’s value in jewelry stores. Picking the right color should never be underestimated. Color branding and your interior design look can increase jewelry sales in your store.