Greetings, color enthusiasts all over this great big world!

How are you and what colorful plans do you have for the week? Tell us in the comments along with from where you’re reading our color blog.

While we typically tackle architectural color topics, today I’m walking you through a 9-step process to select optimal color palettes for corporate branding, products and/or packaging.

Color is the silent marketer whether it be on architecture or brand packaging. Here at LFB Color we work on both types of projects, so let’s consider the steps in a professional color selection process for brands and products.

When do brands need a color consultant anyway? Color consultants are hired when companies are first launching, re branding, and/or launching a new line of products and/or services.

This statistic is all over the Internet, but between 62 and 90% of purchasing decisions are made based on color alone. I’ve quoted this one for years, and the info is based on research conducted by CCICOLOR: Institute for Color Research.

I’d like to walk you through our method of determining the best choices in business color strategy. Let’s begin.

1. Corporate identity: Who are you?

It is imperative that we color consultants have an understanding of your company’s identity, mission, core values and reason for existence. What identifies your company? What words would be used to describe your company, team culture and leadership? Color selection begins and ends with YOUR corporate message.

2. Who are your competitors?

We must understand your competition and how you seek to distinguish yourself. What color themes are competitors using and what is your marketplace position among all competitors? We want to create a unique message through our color selections.

3. What is your price point?

Pricing very strongly determines the selection of color palettes, particularly for branding and packaging. Certain colors and distinct color placement can together elevate the value of your brand and products in the eyes of consumers. On the other hand, if your company provides a great value but at a lower price point, we would select color palettes that convey that distinct message.

4. Who is your target client, end user, demographic?

Until you understand your clientele, you cannot market to them with color, branding and/or packaging. It is essential that we color consultants have access to this information when developing a color design strategy.

5. What are the local, regional, national and global macro color trends?

We need a starting point for color palettes, and we do so with a study of macro trends. Seasoned color consultants have access to databases of color trend info and reports to aid in this step.

6. Create a focus group of target clients to test color palettes and preferences.

Here is one of the most important steps in color design development, and it must be done thoroughly with a sufficiently large sampling of your target audience.

See the video below displaying four of my workshop participants’ color palettes. This was a fun color discussion I did last week, during which time I asked attendees to create a tricolor palette for a hypothetical eye wear brand targeting stylish consumers over 40. Each participant in my color workshop had a different perception of appealing color, but each palette did contain a soft blue.

What the students observed in the workshop was that it’s difficult to set aside personal color preferences when selecting product colors. One attendee couldn’t quite place why he liked the colors he did, and relied upon gut instinct to select his color palette for the eye wear brand. Another attendee assumed in her color choice that the over 40 demographic would want a more expensive looking packaging and thus incorporated gold foil into the mix. We also observed that people tend to be biased in several different ways about color. Age and personal color bias are just two ways that the results in a focus group survey could vary.

The most important goal during a real focus group session is to describe as clearly as possible the assignment and how you want your re branding, new product colors or packaging to look or translate for these clients. Ask your focus group members to select colors that match those descriptions, but also present some test color palette options for them to describe for you.

I could go on, friends………it becomes quite involved as you can see!

7. Ensure color consistency across physical and digital platforms!

Work with a color consultant, graphic designer and qualified print specialist collectively to ensure that colors appear uniformly across all platforms—physically on products and packaging and across digital space. If any aspect of color is visually inconsistent, then this weakens your corporate credibility and message to consumers. They lose trust in your brand as a result!

8. Color placement is equally as important as the colors themselves.

We always collaborate with graphic designers to test color combinations and placement for optimal color marketing impact. It’s amazing how one small change in color placement alters the entire look and feel of logos and packaging especially.

9. Do an annual color audit to maintain relevancy and perhaps gain a leg up on your competitors.

I cannot stress this enough! This is why we color consultants offer this as part of an ongoing color design strategy for corporate clients. Who has time to complete this step in your organization? Why not focus on your core business and leave the color audits to the professionals, correct?

Well, we’ve delved into some color marketing today, colorful friends. Please share with me in the comments your thoughts and ask any questions. We at LFB Color would love to hear from you!

Until next time,

your color strategist Lauren B.