How Famous Brands Distinguish Themselves from Competitors with Color & Logos  

A brand is often associated with a particular color, and in some cases is defined by that color. For example, if you are the illustrious, New York-based Tiffany, it is “Tiffany blue” — not light blue, or powder blue, or marine blue. The same can be said for Hermès orange, Louis Vuitton brown, and Fendi yellow. Of course, that type of instantly recognizable, hue-based branding takes years of consistency, adamant attention to detail, and adherence to the integrity of your company’s aims. But why are colors important? How do brands identify themselves with a particular color and, honestly, do people care?

The answers are as follows:

• Colors are important for recognition and differentiation, and thus often acquire non-verbal, but significant, meaning.
• The color is of value and does resonate with the consumer—they will even pay more for it.

The History of How Color has Individualized a Brand

What role therefore has the color spectrum played in differentiating the mission and identity of worldwide, top-of-the-line companies? During a business conference, a senior executive discussed the story of Fendi, the Italian luxury fashion house. He explained that the brand was founded in 1925 by Adele and Edoardo Fendi as a fur and leather shop, but by the time the next generation took over in 1946, there was a renewed style of management, focused on expanding the impact of the business.

Adele’s and Edoardo’s five daughters – the couple’s heirs — were in a room discussing how best to present and promote the company’s identity to the public. Using the family name was (obviously) easy, but the topic of the corporate logo color became an active, long discussion. So long that the family was at odds with one another, never finding common ground — until one of the daughters, tired enough of the back-and-forth, said they should just use the yellow color of the coat one of them was wearing. Not the most romantic story, but that yellow has since become the vibrant, hallmark shade of a global brand, signifying  the wealth of the wearer.

Tiffany, on the other hand, has a color history as rich as its cultural heritage. Known as a luxury jeweler, the company has been credited with publishing the first mail-order luxury catalog. This became known as “The Blue Book” and thru its association with the high-end status of its offerings, acquired great cachet with the public. Soon, the brand’s marketing became synonymous with it. The color was then used on packaging, and was trademarked and registered with the Pantone [Color] Matching System as number 1837, to commemorate the year Tiffany was founded.

Since then, the Tiffany “blue box” has become one of the most recognized and desired packages in the world. It is such a powerful brand statement that no amount of imitation could tarnish its proprietary status. In fact, any shade even close to its unique, turquoise-inflected “robin’s egg blue” is sometimes simply referred to as “a Tiffany look-a-like.”

How Logos Become Emblematic of a Brand – a Kind of Everyday Trademark

Visual logos, too, are important in identifying a brand’s DNA. Whether that’s thru the rhombus-shaped fabric of the Louis Vuitton steamer-trunk lining, or Gucci’s signature decorative design inspired by horse bits, companies find they are well-served to adhere to the authenticity of their heritage by promoting these images repeatedly. The colors and logos of a brand communicate the promise of the company. They stand for an expectation and should not be taken lightly.

What happens when that expectation gets fumbled? A marketing executive at a well-known fashion label shared an encounter she had with the company’s founder regarding the development of new packaging for the corporate gift card program. The executive presented a modern-styled, rectangular tin box with raised logo letters and a textured logo riser/insert – on which the card would rest — in a shade of midnight blue. At the presentation she was politely greeted with a blank stare. The company’s founder said, simply, that it looked like an Altoid box. The design was not approved, and no further direction was offered. As with most brand leaders, he did not articulate the particular reasons why it did not “feel right.” He just knew.

Years later, the executive had an epiphany. She was at a convenience store and looking for breath mints, when out of the corner of her eye, she saw a tin under the counter: Altoids, she thought to herself. And then, although she had been flummoxed by the dearth of feedback at her presentation, it finally hit her: a small tin box with rounded corners was, to most members of the public, visually reminiscent of a container of breath mints. It would not be viewed as a status-laden gift-card holder, and certainly not a suitable for a high-end, luxury brand offering. It was not right. It never would be.

And so it is with visual brand vehicles: colors, textures, fonts, and logos are all like signatures…unique, exclusive, and proprietary – not to mention singularly recognizable (and valuable to the company) when done well and done right.

The red Levi’s pocket tag and even the front grille of a Rolls Royce (also trademarked and protected) both represent the power of visual branding.  What is that power?  It’s the ability to conjure up an emotion and a connection to a story that the brand has told over and over again. As it should. Because whether its genesis occurred via the color of a family member’s raincoat, or the cover of a first catalog, that company  hallmark now, years later, connotes something much bigger: a stamp of quality, and a promise to the customer that by acquiring the product, they are also showcasing their own devotion to the notion of excellence.