The Effects Of Colour

Phoebe Hayward 1

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Phoebe Hayward, Graphic Design Student.

University of Wolverhampton.

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First printed 2024 in the United Kingdom by Mixam. https://mixam.co.uk/ Material Front & Back Cover: Recycled Silk - 250gsm Paper Type: Recycled Silk - 130gsm Binding: Perfect (PUR) Printed on an Indigo 12000 4

Contents

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Introduction

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Chapter Four

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Chapter One

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Chapter Five

Colour Psychology

Colour Packaging

Collins Vitaminwater

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Chapter Two Brand Recall

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Conclusion

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Chapter Three

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Bibliography Illustration List

What constitutes a brands identity, personality, product, service?

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Introduction Colour is significant in everyday life, and the role of colour in consumer behaviour is indisputable. Businesses implement marketing strategies that use colour in their branding to create brand recognition, promote specific emotions and attract attention (Singh et al., 2023). From small businesses to large conglomerates, marketers must choose colours very thoroughly to represent their brand and products, ensuring a positive consumer perception.

As different colours can evoke different emotions, this can greatly influence a person’s perception of a product’s value. Rathee and Rajain, (2019) investigated the ability of colours to attract attention in servicepeople and students aged between 20 and 30, and identify colour preferences. They discovered that colour has a direct impact on customer buying behaviour, greatly influencing a consumer’s perception of quality, price and value. Similarly, product packaging has shown to have the same desired effect, the packaging of the product and its colour heavily influence the perceived value of the product inside and the decision-making process when purchasing the product (Rambabu and Porika, 2020). This may vary depending on the type of product being marketed, as one colour may convey different perceptions of value in the same product. For example, the same mobile phone with the same specifications could be sold in multiple colours, so why could one colour be preferred to another? Does colour preferences really change how consumers feel about the phone and how it is perceived, despite possessing the same quality and value (Sliburyte and Skeryte, 2014)?

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Colour can be symbolised differently in many different populations, cultures and demographics such as age, gender, and ethnicity groups (Popa et al, 2013). Companies must be carefully aware and analyse public attitudes toward specific colours, categorising them without generalisation. Public preferences based on cultural experiences are also different to personal attitudes towards colour, thus it is important for companies to understand their niche, their target audiences, their cultural backgrounds and the brand’s beliefs and ethos when selecting colours. Then, marketing strategies should be able to effectively communicate the quality and value of the brand’s products. The choice between adopting global versus local marketing can often determine the success of selling products internationally, and to inappropriately choose product or package colours could result in failure in such ventures (Aslam, 2005). Considering this, how do companies transition from local to global marketing, and change the perception of their branding whilst considering the effects of different cultures, demographics and personal preferences?

It has been suggested brands can use colour associations to align with their brand values and strengthen the emotions they want to induce in consumers (Broeder and Scherp, 2018).

Utilising a combination of colours to harmonise together can play a crucial role in product recognition and differentiation from other brands with similar products. By selecting unique colour schemes, products could appear more noticeable, memorable and increase the likelihood of consumers purchasing products over a competing brand. Provided the company understands their own brand values, and the values of the consumer, they can create a bigger connection with them and create an image synonymous with the product. A bigger connection provokes the consumer to associate their brand and their colours first during their initial impression of a specific product, and that product becomes the standard to be compared to. But what emotions do they want to elicit and how do they align with a company’s brand values and image to increase brand awareness? How do they match their colours to print and digital to retain a consistent brand image across all platforms?

Therefore, this study aims to investigate how colour choices effect consumer buying behaviour and answer these questions that remain unclear by providing examples of current companies that utilise colour effectively to improve their brand awareness, using research pertaining to how the different elements of the usage of colours have their impact on the current market in relation to these businesses.

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Chapter One Colour Psychology Colour is incorporated into our everyday being and yet, “the physical world has no colours. There are only light waves of different wavelengths” (Aslan, 2005). It is only the perception of these light waves that our brains receive from our eyes to distinguish them into colours, which then influences human emotion and behaviour. Thus, it is understandable that the colours of packaging, logos, apps and websites can influence our choices and impact our decisions to purchase products.

Colours trigger an emotional response in consumers. van Braam, (2017) states that the proper use of colour can increase a brand recognition by 80%, it raises the visual appearance by 93% and furthermore 85% of consumers buy because of colour. The primary colours (red, yellow and blue) evoke different positive and negative associations with elements, emotions, attributes, cultural and historical links (Adams and Stone, 2017). When it comes to marketing and branding, campaigns aim to produce strong emotions in consumers, they do this by using primary colours.

Primary colours are any set of colours that serve as the foundation for creating all other colours or hues in the visible spectrum, by mixing themselves together (Deng, 2023). The three primary colours in the traditional colour wheel are red, yellow and blue.

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Red, known as the most visual dominant colour, possesses many connotations to stimulating heart rate, blood pressure, appetite and temperature due to its effects on stimulating the sympathetic nervous system (Mayer and Bhikha, 2014). This can initiate the “fight-or-flight” response which is why it is usually used in traffic lights. “The colour can dominate an environment. Many designers shy away from such an extreme colour, but red is one of a designer’s most valuable tools to create dynamic contrast.”

(Adams, 2017, p. 83). When planning marketing and branding strategies, companies such as Coca-Cola and H&M, utilise red to create urgency amongst impulsive shoppers as 62-90% of shoppers make snap judgments based on the influence of this colour (Adams and Stone, 2017; van Braam, 2017).

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Yellow, the first colour that the human eye notices, has a lot of conflicting research. Yellow has shown to be a high arousal colour, possessing higher amounts of positive emotions than negative ones, such as love, joy and excitement (West and Silberman, 2020) Yellow is universally connected to the sun, a bright representation of joy as when the sun is shining it is considered a good day. Although, it is considered a stimulus to arousal levels that influence negative emotions, such as feelings of frustration and anger (O’Connor, 2011), and is presumed to be the most fatiguing colour as it can irritate the consumer’s eyes potentially deterring them from a product or service. Campaigns to improve company marketing and advertisement have used the colour yellow to help create optimism, youthfulness and clarity, and is a colour which grabs consumers’ attention in window shops, which has been used for brands from Nikon to IKEA. (Adams and Stone, 2017; van Braam, 2017). Yellow has shown to be the least preferred colour for marketing strategies with significant differences in purchase intention however, the conflicting evidence can be attributed to the opposing nature of warm and cool colours (Rathee and Rajain, 2019). The use of yellow to increase arousal may be a purposeful intention by a brand who wants to promote specific emotions, and a significant contrast when paired with another colour may elicit more positive connotations to their products or service.

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Blue typically stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system to decrease blood flow, blood pressure and heart rate, resulting in a sedating effect to calm the body, however food of this colour is rare, unappetizing and can supress hunger due to its rest and digest response (Mayer and Bhikha, 2014). “Blue can feel rich and hypnotic, or it can become banal and invisible, depending on the application.” (Adams, 2017, p. 129). Blue clothing often symbolizes loyalty or trust, providing that relaxing feeling and a sense of compromise and intelligence. Blue has found to be the most preferred colour in studies observing the influence of colours in products, promotional material or retail environment among male and female customers (Rathee and Rajain, 2019). It is commonly used in office and casual style clothing and is the primary colour that can mix best with most other colours. When establishing and promoting a brand’s identity the use of the colour blue helps to create a sense of security and confidence making it the favourite colour used by financial institutions like American Express, however it is also used by brands such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Dell.

(Adams and Stone, 2017; van Braam, 2017; Lichtlé, M. C. 2007).

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The use of colours provides stimuli for physiological responses in consumer. Colours with a warm hue have shown to increase heart rate and hunger (Berman, 2007). This is why many fast-food restaurants utilises colours such as red and yellow (an example of this is McDonalds, who are widely known for using red and yellow as their identity amongst their competitors, these colours also symbolise their brand with physical responses associated with eating). In comparison, colours with a cold hue act opposite by lowering blood pressure (Birren, 1997), and stifling hunger (Bleicher, 2023), for instance the use of the colour blue is used in traditional restaurants as it creates a relaxed atmosphere that encourages customers to stay longer and add more to their orders.

Secondary colours are primary colour combinations, for example red and yellow make orange; red and blue make purple, a colour that is often used by jewellery and beauty products for the emotions they evoke within consumers, the feeling of luxury, elegance and sophistication, (Batra, 2016). Blue and yellow make green (Adobe, 2023). These are usually located between two primary colours on the traditional colour wheel. Tertiary colours are primary and secondary colour combinations such as yellow green, orange yellow and purple red (Stokley, 2018). Colours not only interact with each other by mixing but also when placed next to one another. Artists and designers utilise specific colour interactions to showcase certain colours; these relationships are referred to as colour harmonies. The six fundamental colour harmony concepts in the colour wheel are: 12

Complementary – Colour pairs directly opposite each other.

Split Complementary – One colour accompanied by two equally spaced, opposing colours.

Double Complementary – Two pairs of complementary colours.

Analogous – Two or more colours with similar light wavelengths equally spaced from each other.

Triadic – Three colours spaced evenly.

Monochromatic – Shades and tints of a single colour with various saturation and lightness forms (Stone and Adams, 2017) A single colour on its own can evoke emotional and physical responses, however placing it with one or more colours that harmonise with it can shift the perception of the colour dramatically. Witkowska (2018) stated that “colours barely exist in isolation, and they are viewed together”, so designers can vary colour combinations and successful colour relationships that align or contrast with each other to control the viewer’s impression.

Witkowska (2018) observed the effects of contrast colour on consumer behaviour and identified food products packaged with analogous colours are perceived as more likely to be purchased, more attractive and less caloric than ones with complimentary colours. Combining two antagonistic colours can create an appealing impact on an individual, which can influence their engagement, powerfully influence health-related judgements and create positive connections with a product or service. Recent research has agreed with these observations in the effects of colour harmonies on consumer expectations and perceptions of quality and value in food products and packaging (Bix, Seo and Sundar, 2013; Wei et al., 2013).

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Figure 1: A pigment range of hues and saturation levels (Learn., 2023)

Hue is another name for pure colour, it is what people identify properties of colour as (Adams, 2017, p. 12–129). Hue is based on the visible wavelengths of light. Saturation is the state of intensity and purity of a colour. When a pigment hue changes in saturation, it will either change in tint, tone or shade. A highly saturated image is vibrant and bright compared to a desaturated image which appears dull or weak (Learn., 2023). Tints are formed when white is added to a hue, creating a more pastel, lighter and paler version of the original colour. In opposition, tone creates a less vibrant, less intense version of the pure colour by adding grey (black and white) (Hauff, 2018). Artists can add different amounts of tints and tones to manage intensities. When black is added on its own to a pure colour a shade is formed, dulling the brightness which can range from a slightly darker hue to close to black (Learn., 2023).

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As mentioned previously, colours can elicit different emotional connotations and meanings to various populations, demographics and cultures. For example, the colour red is associated with negativity and bad luck in Chad, Nigeria and Germany (Schmitt, 1995) but in China, Denmark, Romania and Argentina it is associated with good luck (Neal, Quester and Hawkins, 2007). A sign of masculinity in the United Kingdom and France, red is also the symbol of love and the colour of wedding dresses in China.

This is a brief glimpse into the multitude of meanings of colours in diverse countries and cultures, and despite those differences, many countries share similar values that transcend the national norms of colours, allowing the integration of different markets based on behavioural similarities.

In relation to product branding, when companies sell their products internationally, issues can arrive when advertising those products with the same colours or when changing colour. Soft drinks in America are traditionally associated with red, however soft drinks in Korea and Japan are usually coloured yellow, and in China they are coloured brown (Jacobs et al., 1991). Companies like Coca-Cola, who are synonymous with the colour red from its inception, have faced significant marketing challenges in these countries due to these colour differences. Considering this, businesses must remember that social conformity is an important factor in consumer-decision making and social and cultural norms should be explored for further consideration to standardise colours commonly associated with specific product categories.

For instance, a study conducted by Jung et al., (2018) on the cross-connection discovered that in the nine countries they sampled (Germany, Iran, Japan, Nepal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Turkey and Uganda), there are consistent patterns in colour choices in relation to particular words such as warm-cold, sorrow-happiness, calm, distance, young-old, feminine-masculine, fast, strong week, expensive and dangerous.

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“Whether bright or dull, singular or complex, physiological or psychological, theoretical or experiential, the persuasive power of colour attracts and motivates.”

Josef Albers (2013)

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Chapter Two Brand Recall Colour largely contributed to brand awareness, an umbrella term consisting of two main contributing factors: brand recall and brand recognition. Usually both factors are used interchangeably, however the distinction between the two is that brand recall is the ability to remember a brand when the consumer is prompted with a specific brand trait whereas brand recognition is the ability to identify a brand by its name, slogan, logo, and other attributes such as colour. For example, if you asked a consumer what the best phone is this would trigger brand recognition, however if you were to ask what the best phone is by the camera quality, this would trigger brand recall.

There is a relationship between the use of colour and brand recall; companies will use colour to create an identity in the marketplace to differentiate from their competitors. For instance, Starbucks identify their brand with the use of a deep green and white colouring whereas their competing company Costa Coffee represent their identity with the use of their own brand colour, known as Costa red. The visual elements of a brand, product, and service, potentially effects consumer purchasing decisions using colour to convey positive messages, emotions and actions. As colours have a lasting impression on our perceptions of product or service quality, consumers decision-making can come from a place of understanding the value and reliability of the product.

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Figure 2: HSBC logo and colour (Bpalettes, 2020)

Figure 3: Pizza Hut logo and colour (jkunkel, 2018a)

Whilst companies separate their identity to other brands by using different colours, brands will also use similar colours and shades to convey different messages, evoke emotions and promote actions to attract consumers towards their brand opposed to another’s. Two companies in different industries that share the same colour scheme may possess different shades to identify their companies with separate meanings, such as HSBC and Pizza Hut whose industries are in banking and food respectively (Bpalettes, 2020). HSBC, use the colour palette red, white and black (which was created and chosen by Henry Steiner for its auspicious hue and powerful look) to represent strength, simplicity, and security in their logo to communicate to their audience that they strive towards reaching financial success together. Pizza Hut’s logo uses the same colours to represents reliability and passion. Created by Lippincott, the red used in the logo came from the brand’s iconic red roof.

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Figure 4: Tiffany box and colour (Tiffany & Co. Newsroom, 2023)

To solidify a company’s brand identity, it is common for brands to trademark colours. Companies are usually refused the trademark of a single colour as this would reduce the use of that colour from many brands to one brand who own the trademark and anyone that they permit the use of their colour to. However, several institutions have trademarked single use colours successfully. (Hustle, 2020) For example, in 1998, Tiffany & Co. registered its own trademarked colour called Tiffany Blue.

In 2001, it became standardized as a custom colour which was created by Pantone exclusively for Tiffany’s, dubbed “1837 Blue” for Tiffany’s founding year (Tiffany & Co. Newsroom, 2023). The colour is still produced today; the hue remains consistent and has become instantly recognizable, influencing consumers’ brand awareness due to the connotations that the Tiffany Blue colour is an icon of elegance and sophistication, and that any packaging produced represents the luxury and exclusivity of the product.

Tiffany wants the consumer to recall the magic of the joy that is brought when a Tiffany Blue Box is opened, when seeing the colour in everyday life.

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Many brands identify themselves with a combination of colours in their logo, thus a single colour trademark will not suffice.

Instead, they will trademark swatches of colour. John Deere, a manufacturing company successfully trademarked a colour combination of green and yellow (Morales, 2023). Green is well known for being a functional colour, one that cannot be trademarked alone due to it being the colour of grass, crops and on farm machinery the colour relates too much to the company’s identity to not be used. So, by adding yellow, John Deere can stop the shades being utilised together on any competing brand’s equipment.

Trademarking a colour can only be accomplished if the company can provide evidence that the colour or colour combinations: -

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Are synonymous with the brand identity through their goods or services, distinguishing themselves and their products significantly from their competitors as the definitive source of their products (achieving “secondary meaning”).

Does not penalise the cost or quality of a competing company’s product or service.

Does not serve a functional purpose (such as the John Deere “green”).

Colour depletion theory also plays a part in the trademarking of colours. Colour depletion suggests that if all companies trademark single colours, it can become problematic as it will cause market entry barriers, as well as increasing consumer search costs (Wang, 2022). For example, if all single colours or colour combinations are claimed then eventually, they will run out. This leads on to shade confusion theory, the idea that consumers will find it confusing to distinguish between slightly different shade variations of the same colour because the distance between colours shrink and the boundaries between colour trademarks will become blurred.

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Whilst companies compete against each other to trademark colours they also must take into consideration how their own colour will look when presented on computer screens compared to when presented on print. Brands aim to maintain consistency in their colours across all mediums, a difficult task as there are many factors that affect colour matching. The difference between digital and print is that monitors used RGB (red, green, blue) making them more vibrant compared to print which uses a four-colour process CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) that can create a toned-down appearance by combining all or some off the colours used as tiny halftone dots (Adams, 2017, p. 12). The reason for this is that RGB has a range of over 16 million different colours whereas CMYK has a possible 10 million colours, meaning there are at least 6 million different colours that CMYK cannot replicate (G5, 2020). For digital branding such as billboards, phone screens and television advertisements using RGB would be more useful however for designing branding that will go to print (magazines, posters and leaflets) CMYK artwork will translate digital to print almost identically.

Figure 5: CMYK VS PRINT (G5, 2020)

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Chapter Three What constitutes a brands identity, personality, product, service?

Brands focus on expressing their identity through their personality, core values, beliefs and their visual uniqueness to set them apart from their competitors. All these aspects play a part in a brand’s decision upon its name, logo and colour. To engage with audiences, they want to evoke feelings that align with these aspects when interacting with their business. The aim is to leave a lasting impression on a customer’s mind and create an identity that builds trust and understanding between business and consumer.

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PERSONALITY Every brand has a personality, unique human qualities that associate their messages with the characteristics of their target consumer. People want to resonate with the brand’s ethos and the easiest method is to humanise the brand, creating emotional, intellectual and behavioural patterns that over time will relate to an audience. A brand wants to be known but more importantly, remembered for their traits. Colour is a direct catalyst towards expressing emotions, provoking responses, creating mood and symbolising ideas which all play a role in a brand’s personality.

If the brand can utilise colour to create a symbolic link between the producer and its products, then customer’s will connect the brand’s products with their personality. About 62%-90% of the initial judgement customer’s make when interacting with a product is based on the colour of the product, packaging, logo, and other advertising (Kumar, 2017). Considering the logo of a brand is what represents the company, the direct link of the primary colours of the brand’s logo to their personality can be made when establishing a judgement on the product.

This link can be strengthened by tuning colours to match the personality of the consumer. Whilst colours can associate strongly to general emotions, moods and attributes, a lot of specific associations will depend on characteristics such as the consumer’s personality, age, gender, cultural background, socioeconomical background and preferences. Every consumer is unique but can be categorised by their traits to understand buying behaviour in a particular target consumer. For example, impulse buyers may be more inclined to purchase from brands who promote a sense of urgency through their stimulant colours and juxtaposing contrasts compared to those who prefer browsing at a leisurely pace who may be detracted from such colour use.

Instead, they may be attracted to lighter colours that promote a comforting experience that evoke feelings of choice, safety and traditional values when purchasing.

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CORE VALUES AND BELIEFS Just as colours are very influential at establishing a brand’s personality, they also reflect their values and beliefs. In other words, the brand wants you to associate their colours with the ethos they share and the more appropriate the colour is, the more likely you are to connect the colour to the company and their products. Colour mapping is a method used to identify logo colours for a new brand and profiles colours to ensure brands can differentiate in a marketplace. A study in 2012 (Chang and Lin) investigating the impact of colour traits on corporate branding used their sample to explore the consistency between colour traits of the brand and the vision and goal of the brand. They discovered that consumers would relate colours to their own ideal customer image, as well as the type of products or service they sell to create relationships with customers and develop them overtime.

Consumers appear to select their preferred colours, establishing the relationship with the company, generating related emotions and connect with the brand. When a collective of consumers generate the same related emotions and connections, a brand image can be shaped.

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VISUAL IDENTITY Brands must achieve visibility, differentiation and memorability when considering the uniqueness of their brand colours. In a market surrounded with the same products and services, companies can still share similar traits to their competitors whilst still creating their own identity. For example, in social media companies the logo is what usually separates one company from another because it is the first thing people will see on the home page of their phone screens. Less focus is put towards the use of colour consistency within their pages when you access their applications or websites. As they all provide similar services (apart from how information is posted, viewed and interacted with), social media companies rely on colour to influence the usage of their platform. For example, brands who use blue as their universal colour such as Twitter and Facebook, possess strong brand visibility and memorability because Facebook is the most common used application in the world and Twitter has a form (bird) rather than a letter for its logo (Nakhil, 2017) In comparison, YouTube and Instagram show higher strength in memorability and differentiation because of their unique colour schemes in the market.

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Chapter Four Colour Packaging Colour is not only influencing buying behaviour in the advertising and branding but in the packaging of products also. By shaping the consumer’s concept and perception through packaging, companies seek to provide a great last impression before the final purchasing decision is made. There are many ways that the packaging of products can add value: -

Does it provide a competitive advantage?

Does it represent the brand values?

Does it increase impact at the point of purchase?

Does it give opportunities to branch to a new market?

Using colour on packaging can provide a strong association unique to the brand, and visual elements such as graphics, font size and colour are much more critical elements compared to information when using packaging (Brewer, 2006). The choice of colour can also have cultural impacts on buying perception, a colour in one area of the world may possess completely different connotations compared to another area (Ahmad, Billoo and Lakhan, 2014).

One of the most obvious examples of this is Cadbury; often the first thing that comes to mind is the logo and soon after the colour of the packaging. Despite the logo for Cadbury’s being white, the packaging is a very distinctive purple to elicit a sense of extravagance and decadence, linking their company to luxury and quality. Considering that the colour choice was introduced as a tribute to Queen Victoria, a sign of the royal warrant given to them as an official cocoa and chocolate maker for the British monarch (How, 2019), it makes sense why these feelings of excellence have been expressed over the past century. For a company that is synonymous with this colour, Cadbury’s have not been the only company who can use that purple (Pantone 2865c) as they were unable to trademark the colour for a very long time. They can register the colour providing that they can show there is a distinctiveness between the colour and its association with the brand, showing the importance of brand awareness in consumers spanning years of product service and branding.

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Another important item of notice is that just because a product is cleverly packaged with attractive colours it is not always reflective of the product quality. Although, the perception of product quality in consumers at the point of purchase is heavily influenced by the appearance of the packaging (Abdalkrim and Al-Hrezat, 2013). As the ever-growing market is full of competing products, consumers are faced with uncertainty about product quality and performance when choosing the right product for them so they must rely on extrinsic cues as signs of product quality. One of these is the colours and shapes of a products packaging and labelling, and it has been shown that the appropriate choice in the colour with the right form, may positively impact customer choice (Pires, 2008).

For example, customers appear to associate the meaning ‘hot’ with red and more pointed shapes such as a triangle, hexagon and diamond, and associate ‘cold’ with blue and green, as well as more stable shapes such as squares and rectangles (Figure six).

Figure 6: An active scale of colours and shapes (adapted from Pires, 2008)

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Adversely, inappropriate choices of product package and label colour with incorrect form may lead to failures in marketing strategies. There are of course outliers to this, take YouTube, Nintendo, and Lego who all possess logos with stable shapes and a main colour associated with meanings like ‘active’ and ‘exciting’.

However, this deviation from the normality makes more sense when interpreting the perception of each brand’s values and the identity they want to present. All three utilise the colour red to evoke emotions like excitement, joy and play, then heavily contrast the colour with squares or rounded rectangles to promote brand values such as innovation, passion and creativity, symbolising the play button, Lego blocks and Nintendo’s timeless entertainment (Mosi, 2023; Logos-World, 2024; Jansen, 2022). These logos have all been through extensive redesigns since their first releases, perhaps a testament to the amount of time spent understanding the fluctuations in trends, the ideal consumer, and the perceptions of their products.

For one of the least expensive methods of changing a brand, it is significant for marketing teams to gain further knowledge of how the consumer perceives certain colour and shape combinations and how that reflects the brand’s identity, the awareness of the brand and the quality of the product and service.

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Chapter Five Collins Vitaminwater branding A design company that helps brands encapsulate all aspects of colour to manipulate brand awareness and influence costumer buying behaviour is Collins. Collins have transformed and reimagined the visual identities of, at this time, 223 companies by helping their clients unlock new brand values and revitalising older brands into a modern company.

Adams and Stone, (2017) state that “Brian Collins and his team see a world where all points converge; digital into physical, consumer into producer, and biology into technology. They call it the Convergence Era.” A perfect example of the work that Collins produces is the vitaminwater Brand System. The vitaminwater was originally launched in 1996 with it’s minimal, pharmaceutical-inspired packaging unique to its time however, 20 years on, many copycat products were introduced to compete with the leading brand with much success. This meant that vitaminwater required a rebrand that ensured they were staying ahead of the market.

Collins believed they could achieve this by building off the company’s iconic label while adding a bold tone of voice and upgrading the company’s personality, expression and identity to bring history to the now.

At the start of the brands revitalisation, Collins found that the solution came from the original label and colour of the product itself. By introducing an illustration of the bottle’s silhouette, and a diverse and vibrant colour palette related to the variety of flavours, vitaminwater can stand out to consumers. In doing so, this has built on the brands design history in an authentic way making it link back to the original branding whilst reinventing for a modernday audience. The new system gives respect to the product as its focal point whilst encouraging the flexibility to express new ideas and perceptions from consumers.

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The colour palette provided for the vitaminwater advertisement is broken down into three different sections: label, liquid and background. The label design and iconic bottle shape is consistent throughout the branding however, there are at least 10 different colour variations of the promotional material based on the flavours and associated names.

Each flavour is given an associated name and tag line to make emotional links to the consumer, not dissimilar to the chosen colour of the water and packaging. A good example of this is the Vitaminwater ‘energy’ flavour which is energy tropical citrus. The colours used for the packaging of this is ‘bright green’ and ‘energy yellow’.

Yellow is commonly associated amongst consumers to being linked to the sun, which provides the earth and its inhabitants a form of energy, it known as being a cheerful and attentiongrabbing colour (Lichtlé, M. C. 2007). The colour yellow has many different psychological effects on the consumer some being stimulated cognition, creativity and optimism but also some negative effects such as anxiety, impulsiveness and emotional fragility. Thus, adding a bright green element to the advertainments of the flavour ‘energy’ refreshes the consumer with positive affirmations of trust, stability and endurance.

Considering that both yellow and green are analogous colours they harmonize due to their high degree in hue similarity. They complement each other despite the different emotions they can evoke in consumers by supressing negative connotations in either colour.

Figure 7: Vitaminwater ‘energy’ (Communication Arts, 2018)

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Pantone Matching System (PMS) Collins utilises the PMS when it comes to promoting a new flavour for Vitaminwater, to ensure that the online and printed advertisements are consistent. Collins split their colour palette into the base colour (background) and split colour (label) for each individual flavour (bottle). These colours all possess PMS codes that gives them unique identifications. The PMS codes are then used when finding the colour’s digital or printed variation, in CMYK and RGB (figure eight).

Figure 8: Vitaminwater colours (Collins, 2018)

‘power-c’ Vitaminwater uses the colours power-c red and powder blue in its branding for the drink. The colour ‘power-c red’ codes for print and digital are: Cyan – 0, Magenta – 93, Yellow – 79, Key – 41 and Red – 235, Green – 0, Blue – 41. The PMS code is 185.

The colour ‘powder blue’ codes for print and digital are: Cyan – 55, Magenta – 0, Yellow – 0, Key – 0 and Red – 77, Green – 199, Blue – 255. The PMS code is 2915.

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Packaging The packaging for vitaminawater highly relies upon the brands icon label, simple silhouette of the bottle and its bold colour derived from the flavoured liquid. The label consists of the brands logo, signature colour dependant on the flavour, the flavour itself and what other ingredients inside.

“Our sense of design, colour and minimalism, creates enjoyable experiences with style, personality & purpose that gives us a place in people’s hearts.” (Collins, 2018) Also included on the label is a witty response from the brand’s bold tone of voice describing the flavour of the drink and what associations they want consumers to have when drinking the water. A good example comes from Vitaminwater ‘energy tropical citrus (b+guarana), the packaging is described as such: “in soccer (excuse us mexico, spain, and italy, we mean “futbol”, there isn’t a more exciting moment than when the announcer screams ‘gooooooooal” (yelling “oooffffsiddde” never quite caught on). with that said, we added b vitamins and quarana to give you an extra kick (pun intended). so now when you’re watching soccer, playing soccer, coaching soccer, driving kids to soccer or doing anything that starts with “socc” and ends with “er” you too can have the energy of a raving lunatic to yell “gooooooooal”. vitamin + water = all you need” The split tone label helps to break up the paragraph of text that engages the consumer to continue reading the unique message on the bottle. The contents describing how they want you to relate to the beverage is carefully paired with the colours to subliminally promote positive feelings when consuming it.

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Chapter Six Conclusion The role of colour in influencing brand perception, brand awareness, and consumer buying behaviour is significant and is something that cannot be underutilised when managing a business. It is multifaceted and complex; brands must consider many factors when selecting colours. Colour is significantly impactful in evoking emotions, shaping perceptions, connecting with various audiences and manipulating purchasing decisions.

Brands that understand this powerful influence and use it effectively in their branding can achieve an advantage against their competitors if they differentiate themselves, and are aware of the cultural, historical, and emotional correlations of each colour and colour combinations when aligning them to their brand values. Brands utilise colour in their digital and printed advertising, utilising the PMS to retain consistency with their brand image and values and express a tone of voice that is synonymous with their products, packaging and colour schemes. Companies that achieve this successfully, such as Coca-Cola, Tiffany & Co, and Vitaminwater, have used these methods uniquely to amass a large audience that identifies, remembers and connects with the colours of the brand whenever they initially see advertising or product, regardless of the cultural implications of the colour.

Coca-Cola and Vitaminwater in particular use their bottle shape, labels, and flavours to inspire their colour, imagery and form choices to entice and connect consumers to the emotional connotations of drinking their products; using multiple media as a catalyst for engagement while maintaining brand cohesion.

This study has confirmed that all of these factors are equally important towards a brand deciding the correct colour for the product, packaging and digital and print advertising, for the target demographic, at both initial impressions of the product and the point of purchase. It is recommended that companies should consider all factors of colour’s influence on brand perception during the inception of the brand’s values, messages and personality, to fully establish their connection to their target audience.

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List Of Illustrations Figure 1: A pigment range of hues and saturation levels (Learn., 2023). Page 14 Figure 2: HSBC logo and colour (Bpalettes, 2020).

Page 18 Figure 3: Pizza Hut logo and colour (jkunkel, 2018a).

Page 18 Figure 4: Tiffany box and colour (Tiffany & Co. Newsroom, 2023). Page 19 Figure 5: CMYK VS PRINT (G5, 2020). Page 21 Figure 6: An active scale of colours and shapes (adapted from Pires, 2008). Page 28 Figure 7: Vitaminwater ‘energy’ (Communication Arts, 2018). Page 32 Figure 8: Vitaminwater colours (Collins, 2018). Page 33

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