24 Mar 9. Visual Strategy of Brand You

Creating a Visual Strategy of Brand You

This is the last in a series of blogs around visual strategy, showing you how we use visuals to express your soul and create a beacon of assets that attract the customers you most want to work with. This blog focuses on pattern and strategy. Firstly, let’s explore strategy – a visual strategy starts with colour, as it is one of the first psychological impacts the human body experiences, converting light into a signal that impacts the stem of the brain, the hypothalamus.

The Push and Pull Effect

Colour strategy consists of aligning your branding colours to create a beacon of who you are and what you represent; your values, your core and your soul. Think of it as a transmitter that will attract the customers you most want to work with. This is what I call the push effect of colour psychology. The pull effect is understanding your target audience and what colours they will be attracted to. For example, if you were focusing on a children’s playground, you might need high energy, long wavelength colours like yellow, orange and red, as these are  colours children will respond to. However, if you are talking to a more professional audience that you need to pull in, while giving yourself some gravitas and credibility, then blues might be a more appropriate colour. Finally add an accent colour of orange to offset the serious shades This hints at playfulness and action-based welcoming communication.

Combining the push and pull of colour psychology

The real art of colour strategy combines the push and the pull of colour psychology. The ‘push’ being the promotion of who you are, like a visual transmitter for your soul. The ‘pull’ brings your audience towards your soul and the values that you’re giving off through the colour psychology that aligns with the values of your business. An example of the push could be somebody who has a science-based approach to their work, but is working in a very spiritual and ethical place that has a powerful energy driver. This might be represented by a square of blue for the rational and science-based approach. Inside the blue square, the spiritual and ethereal service could be represented by a light lilac and a ball of “action-love” raspberry, to signify that core engine that is the driving force behind the organization.   The pull side of the same strategy focuses on your target audience who are entrepreneurs needing the reassurance and gravitas of blue. The purple attracts those who are looking for a science-based approach to exploring the spiritual side of themselves. Finally, the ball of raspberry attracts entrepreneurs who enjoy the high-energy colours due to the dynamic nature of their work.  

Bringing the Visual Strategy of Purpose Brand all Together

Then we focus on a strategy of what would be visually appealing to your market positioning. So, we can take a light blue, a dark blue and a gold as being the core branding colours. If a business is in an embryonic industry that is fighting for credibility, then we’d probably tone down the gold.  At the same time dial up the reliability of the darker blue. Lastly, increase feelings of possibility that comes with a lighter blue. Again, this gives people a feeling of security, which is very much required for businesses that are embryonic in nature. This focuses customer’s understanding of the science and gains belief and trust in in a new concept. As the industry grows and people become more comfortable, the gold element dials up, increasing positive vibes and attracting the target market: the pioneers. This adds an extra boost into launching your company into the next phase of growth.   So, this is a brief insight in the world of how colour psychology strategy attracts the customers you most want to work with. Just one aspect of the visual strategy Brand You – Nick Horton, The Fourth Space founder The Fourth Space : Understand,  Own and Launch Brand You         Read on…