A basic building block for effectively communicating your personal brand is color.
Color is key in creating visual connections to your personal brand. It helps you stand out and reinforces your brand attributes. According to a University of Loyola study, “Color increases brand recognition by up to 80 percent.”
Think about strong corporate brands. They absolutely leverage color to help the marketplace recognize their brand. For example, UPS, thought of as the world’s logistics company, uses what colors in their branding? That’s right – brown and gold. Brown and gold are everywhere — employee uniforms, delivery trucks and marketing campaigns.
Color instantly creates a visual and emotional connection to the brand.
What color is best for you? Select your brand color(s) carefully as they determine overall impact, help spread a clear, authentic message and make you more memorable. This process of selecting your brand color is not about picking your favorite color. It is about selecting color(s) that reinforce your brand attributes.
How are you using color as a component of your personal brand? What personal characteristics and brand attributes are you reinforcing with your use of color?
Does the color you are using set you apart and authentically communicate your value and brand? Have you developed a solid strategy for using color to support your personal brand identity system?
Review all the components of your brand identity system and use your color selection consistently. Color can be used in your résumé, email signature block, business card, personal stationery and all other career marketing materials. Your brand color should permeate all you do, helping to set you apart and enhance how you are known and recognized.
Share how you use color to be recognized or stand out.
Cindy, another fun way to use color is to incorporate it into your clothing. I look good in my primary logo color, so I wear that a lot.
Does that mean I can write off my new clothes as a business expense? 🙂
I love this as it was recently suggested to me to add another color to my company logo – and in draft it looks fabulous! Such a great reminder to “brighten”.
Michelle, to brighten is great. Color in your branding is so powerful. Looking forward to see what you are adding 🙂
Kathleen, you are so dead on about clothing. On the tax question check with an expert on that one!!!
This is such a tough one for me…I picked one color that I liked and my web designer picked a complementary color and I went with it. As a singer and performer, people usually think red, burgundy, gold, black…I just didn’t want to go there. I love my colors and I will take your advice and work it into all things. I am with Kathleen – I look great in my primary color too…I will wear it more often. Yay! an excuse to go shopping! Thanks again!