[saikarthik]

There has been a ton of research behind taking advantage of the human perception, subconscious effects on our purchase patterns and to increase the sale of a product or promotion of brand. And I was aware of this practice in many products and specially food industry like subtle placing kitchen exhaust in walk-ways to attract crowd to eateries, visual menu effects and stuff.

But recently, I noticed a trend in the logos of popular automotive content sites/forums and YouTube channels in India and many have similar colors in their logos including Team-BHP. Also some of the OEMs. Take a look at these for an idea of what I am trying to say,

All have combination of majorly White and Red with other minor color changes.

Then I read an interesting article about how the color subconsciously triggers the phycological process of highlighting the brand to targeted customer. So, according the the source site (refer link in the end of this post),

• 90% of the people get impulsive buying triggers based on the color of the brand or their product or it's packaging.
• 80-85% of the people think the color makes them to see brand in a different way thereby affecting the value.

So, I am condensing the conclusion of this study into what majorly used colors might mean to the customer and how it dictates the selection of color for their logos. Let me post a picture to ease the concept understanding.

Blue:
Blue denotes trust, commitment, dependency and inspiration.

It is also the color of nature since you can see it in the skies and the deep blue sea. Known for its calming and tranquil effects, blue is also referred to as the color of harmony. 33% of brands have logos in blue.

Red:
Red denotes fire, danger, and blood. It evokes feelings of heat, warmth, excitement, love, passion, and sexuality. It increases blood pressure and heart rate and excites and motivates its viewers to take action.

But some brands stay away from using red in their colors because of its negative meanings such as anger and violence.

Yellow:
Yellow, the color of sunshine is something that puts a smile on your face. It is related to cheerfulness, optimism, playfulness, joy, energy, and friendliness.

Green:
Green can be associated either with nature or wealth. While lighter and brighter shades indicate growth, renewal and vitality, the richer and darker shades represent wealth, abundance, and prestige.

Black & White:
Mean sophistication and purity respectively. Many Luxury brands tend to keep it simple but effective.

Source: Litmusbranding

[GTO]

Neat thread! Thanks for sharing, and including the Team-BHP logo . Frankly, I chose red + black + grey only because I love the combination. Even my earlier company's logo had a lot of red in it, while my terrace has a colour theme very similar to Team-BHP!



At one point in time, 3 of the 4 cars in my house were black. Have owned 1 red car (Zen) and I feel some others look best in red only (Thar, Mustang, Ferrari).

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by saikarthik

the color subconsciously triggers the phycological process of highlighting the brand to targeted customer

A "hatke" topic for a thread, and allow me to express my likes for some logos that you've featured. Dull blue and neutral silver appeal the least to me. The logos from your pic that I like are:

1. Green - John Deere, Land Rover, BP
2. Blue - Ford, JPMORGAN
3. Purple - Cadbury
4. Red - Canon, Target, Nintendo, Mitsubishi, CNN
5. Orange/brown - Harley Davidson
6. Yellow/Gold - Ferrari, Schweppes, Cat, NatGeo, Chevy, UPS, Shell, IMDb
7. Bhel puri- Google

Does the choice of colour(s) also say many things about the person?

Originally Posted by GTO

I chose red + black + grey only because I love the combination.

some others look best in red only (Thar, Mustang, Ferrari).

The red in the team-bhp logo looks hot because it blends with the redline on the tacho. Agree on the Ferrari, and would include the red Hyundai Accent Viva, red Mitsubishi Lancer SFXi, red Jeep Compass, red VW Polo and the 2014 red Scorpio to the list too.

[saikarthik]

Originally Posted by GTO

I chose red + black + grey only because I love the combination.

Again, best example for subconscious selection

Originally Posted by vigsom

1. Dull blue and neutral silver appeal the least to me.

2. Does the choice of colour(s) also say many things about the person?

1. Yes sir. The shade of color matters a lot and they stress upon in the source site again.

2. Maybe, maybe not. If the color says about a person and if we assume the same for the companies that bear logo colors, then Blue is trust and we can't trust blindly facebook , can we? Referring to all those anti-trust and privacy litigations.

[aadya]

Originally Posted by saikarthik

There has been a ton of research behind taking advantage of the human perception, subconscious effects on our purchase patterns and to increase the sale of a product or promotion of brand.

Thanks for the Thread. Even the Fonts/Style has significant perception bias.

https://turbologo.com/articles/font-psychology/

[CarNerd]

It's not just the color, even the tune associated with a particular brand matters. These signature tunes or music help to recall the brand even if we can't see the brand. I guess you all know these brands:

Pap parap pap paa ra ra (Hint: Coffee)

Ting ting ti ting (Biscuit)

Parap paa pa pa (Fast food)

Laaaaa la la la laaaaa (Soap) and so on.

[sramanat]

Great thread. I agree with the emotions a color invokes, but I doubt if brands chose those colors with this in mind. Microsoft's old logo was just the word in blue. Wonder why facebook chose that.
Also, many of the logos in monochrome/greyscale and RGB are from a different era - like NYT - possibly with printing in mind.
Blue used to be the color of old world tech companies - intel, DELL, IBM, hp, GE, AT&T, Microsoft etc.

[saikarthik]

I saw an experiment long back in the Discovery channel, where they used different colors on the walls and the whole theme of a coffee shop/RTO and deliberately make customers angry by some actions to observe how they react. They found that the color pink made people less angry towards employees even if the mistake was deliberate .

The same model was later proposed and adopted even for a trial in correction center (Prison). When the prisoners and officers were interviewed, they said a whole lot of difference was observed within themselves. It's sad to see how these never get adopted in real world even after data and proof.

Pink is really stereotyped as girlish color, but in reality, every human (read men) have both feminine and masculine sides.

[Anees_Offl]

Thanks for sharing. Indeed lots of info behind the colours. As you mentioned this blends with the overall nature of the brand as well.