Tag Archive for: consumer goods

Incorporating a Color Palette into Your Brand Marketing

Oreo and Coca-Cola have bright, signature colors that they use in almost all of their collateral

Iconic brands use color to grab audience attention and establish trust.

Picture a box of Oreos. The container’s shade of royal blue is likely one of the first things you were able to conjure. This is, of course, because the package itself is blue. However, that image has been reinforced by multi-million dollar marketing campaigns that consistently incorporate a perfect stack of white and black cookies and a glass of milk on a simple background that includes that iconic box blue. This long-term color branding is one of the reasons AdWeek has named Oreo one of the top 10 brands.

Oreo is far from the only brand with this level of color palette recognition. Take the red picture above, do you know what brand it is?

Coca-Cola instantly came to mind. The company’s “Coca-Cola Red” is so ubiquitous with the brand they were able to trademark it.  The strongest and most memorable brands always use their brand color in marketing: logo, print marketing materials, signage, websites, social media graphics, blog posts and presentation decks.

 

Branding for Growing Businesses

GreenRoom Agency clients Soundcast and Sound of Sleep use color to establish trust in their brand.

Brands large and small can benefit from a strong use of color in marketing materials.

However, the value of a color palette isn’t limited to household names. Growing businesses can start to reap the benefits of a color palette using their brand colors in product photography and digital compositions as a background color. Not only does this help establish brand recognition, but this color selection can heavily impact how viewers feel about your company and its products.

Thinking beyond backgrounds: brands can subtly choose to incorporate brand colors into props and other seemingly small decisions. Notice the color of the napkin on the table beneath the Oreo cookie pancakes. This is not just coincidence—it’s an impactful example of an attentive designer intuitively establishing brand recognition for viewers.

GreenRoom embraces color in the creative work across clients. For Soundcast, a high-end Bluetooth speaker brand, we leveraged the company’s bright orange and charcoal gray in a holiday carousel ad campaign that resulted in the company’s most successful click-through rates to date.

In a subtler approach, GreenRoom edits or skillfully selects light blue and white items—a blanket, shirt, wall, or lamp—for sleep client Sound of Sleep. These colors non-explicitly send a message of peace, calm, and relaxation in images that are used in social media posts, on the website, across digital advertising, and even in the images we send to press that are ultimately incorporated into media reviews and roundups.

For each brand, the goal of a color pallette is to create a consistent brand experience that ultimately leads to stronger brand recognition. When you’ve achieved this, your target audience will intuitively trust trust and enjoy the products more, easing the transition into top-of-mind purchase research and, ultimately, sales.

The Evolution of a Startup: Steps to Growing up as a Brand

the evolution of a start up- steps to

Defining a startup can be challenging; is it based on company size, yearly or quarterly growth or projected income? While most people define a startup as a company in the early stages of its operation, there are no hard and fast rules of the definition.

We see a lot of startups in the consumer goods industry; everything from the small 2 man operation to larger teams with well over 100+ employees.  While there is a place and time to be defined as a startup, as public relations professionals and brand consultants, there comes a time when we have to encourage the companies we support to evolve.

We know growth can be tough, especially for companies, but eventually every company will be faced with pertinent decisions about their future. To prepare for those moments, we have a few tips to prime your company for the transition from startup to the growth phase and ultimately transform into an established company.

Media Programs

Of course, this is our agency’s bread and butter. By developing core media programs that include company profiles and executive interviews that not only demonstrate thought leadership, but company growth, can be a determining factor when legitimizing a business or organization. The media not only creates a framework for discussion, but provides a platform for a brands’ message to be told to a wider, interested body of consumers and investors. The agency shapes and molds the message with the media to help accelerate a company into the forefront of consumer’s attention.

Effective media relations also give companies the chance to be seen by retailers and buyers. The agency pinpoints publications with readerships in key retail markets ensuring the product is seen by decision makers and buyers.  Not only do retail partnerships create a steady stream of income, but provide a wider distribution of messaging which can help accelerate a company on all fronts.

Creative Assets

Media relations isn’t the be-all and end-all for transitioning a company from startup to established. It takes a holistic approach. Everything from the look and feel of the company website to formal headshots and expertly crafted executive bios, no detail should be overlooked when entering the competitive space of Corporate America. Adding a creative edge with polished assets can create the perception of an established company even if the startup hasn’t quite reached established level yet.

Guidance

Your PR representative should not only be a brand ambassador with the media, but provide guidance and direction during the entire growth process. PR representatives should seek and cultivate opportunities for brand growth by encouraging participation in mentor or accelerator programs, panel discussions and speaking engagements. Further, PR representatives should provide continuous brand counsel during these programs ensuring the brand’s message is being formed effectively and appropriately.

With the knowledge and know how from your public relations team, the agency can be a driving force for brand growth. Sam Cooke said it best, “It’s been a long time coming, but I know a change gon’ come”, and if executed properly, those changes can effectively move a company from startup to established.