When I was six years old, I insisted my bedroom was painted orange. Not just any orange, but a burnt orange, the colour of richly glowing Chinese Lanterns. I remember I kept my bedroom that colour right up until I left home at the age of nineteen. And that gorgeous colour still makes my heart sing to this day! But that’s just MY opinion!
However, COLOUR, I came to realise, is and always has been a HUGE part of my life. I feel uncomfortable in surroundings where colours don’t sit well with me and even choose restaurants based on the ambience of the room, as created by the colours alone, as much as on the food that is served there.
So, let’s test this out …
Imagine a restaurant with a chess board patterned floor in black and white, chrome framed black leather chairs, crisp white table linen and a single red rose in an exquisite crystal vase on every table.
Now imagine a second restaurant. This time there are … pine floorboards, solid oak furniture, dark cream linen, and a single sunflower head in a low olive green pottery vase on every table.
Which one would you choose?
They’d certainly feel like very different places to eat. Plus, you’d immediately start assuming the sort of food you’d get in each place too, wouldn’t you! Well, (and please take heed of this) … it’s the same for your brand! People will make all sorts of assumptions, based on their first impression of you and your business. For example, they’ll instantly start to think they know what to expect from you … whether you’ll treat them casually? meticulously? intensely? or even speedily? And just like you already ‘knew’ what type of food you’d be getting get in that restaurant:
if the service they perceive you offer in your business isn’t in synergy with what they want, they’ll just move on … and be gone!
So if, as we have discovered, colour has such power to influence even your dining decisions, it pays to think carefully about what it can do, one way or the other, to your potential clients!
There are many other elements to colour and colour choices that I’ll continue covering in future posts, but for now, start thinking about how you want to be perceived. What is it that you want your potential clients to assume about you and your business from the get-go? And then be sure you select your perfect brand colours that broadcast exactly that!