How Psychology Drives Brand Perception

When is a colour more than just a colour or a font more than a variety of shapes?

You may feel that how you choose to decorate your brand is nothing more than personal preference, piecing your favourite colour, shape and surname together to build a loose starter identity but whether or not these choices were conscious or otherwise, they will go on to have an impact on the wider worlds perception of who you are. Meaning, sometimes a colour can actually become more than just a colour.

Even for those who say it’s a gut feeling choice, “I just like x, y and z”, more times than not those choices are based on something more than red being your favourite colour. It’s only by attempting to understand the psychology attached to these branding choices that we begin to push past the decorative to see how we’re impacting perception, and ultimately what part we're playing in whether or not a brand can win people's hearts & minds.

So how do we attempt to understand the psychology that drives branding?

There’s a couple of ways to look at it, visual and non-visual.

The tools of visual representation are important in manufacturing any potential love at first sight interactions. Certain colours naturally emit certain emotional responses, forming psychological links. Which is why you’ll see eco-friendly or health focused brands pick friendly greens, a lot of consultants (IT, finance or otherwise) will choose business blues, and more creative ventures might lean bolder with reds and purples.

Non-visual actions are more focused on trust building exercises, socially engineering moments of connection that help shape perception. For instance the reciprocity of giving before an ask (e.g., free resources, trials), or if one aspect of your brand is seen as excellent, most people will assume the rest is too (e.g. customer service). Brands that master these principles will eventually build a bank of social proof, in that people trust what others already endorse, resulting in the self-fulfilling supply of testimonials, reviews, and UGC that builds credibility.

It’s not rocket science but it isn’t just simple selling, it’s about making a conscious effort to create something with a lasting influence.

At NEWBOX, visually we lean towards two palettes, one majorly reliant on black with a little splash of colour, the other a complete opposite multi-coloured backdrop. For us, personal preference plays a larger role than psychology but if we don our scientific hat for a minute, we use the “Black with a splash” palette because it offers clients a blank slate to which they can attach their own story. And the “Multi-coloured” palette as it speaks to the endless options and opportunities on offer once you engage our services. 

Non-visually, world building with an authentic narrative at your core will always be the most valuable aspect in shaping a brand identity. If you have a bad product or crappy service, who's really going to care that you prefer the company name be in all caps or the logo be a certain size, and only seen in some super rare coral blue.

The visual might help you leap past the doom scroll but you’ll never hold onto their long term attention without a compelling story. Great brands understand this.