The right color for your brand identity

Carola Seybold, Pantone

It’s very important to localize the packaging as well as the communication because the cultural divide can be the first obstacle to a good approach of an international market.

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#DigitalTalk with Carola Seybold, Director Business Development, Pantone EMEA

Gabriele: “Colors are one of the most distinguishing factors for a company logo. They bring out the moods of life as well as the character of a firm. Choose the right colours for the brand identity is very important, especially nowadays where visual stimuli can make the difference between to get the client, or not to.”

Carola: “93% of all our perception is done with our eyes. And in more than 85% of all our purchasing decisions, Color is the key driver to buy something or not. Besides this, Color is the first thing we can recognize and this item, we can remember the longest time. This underlines the importance of using colour wisely in every commercial aspect.”

Il Giornale delle PMI
Il Giornale delle PMI new logo

Gabriele: “We have chosen Pantone’s Fiesta red for the new logo of Il Giornale delle PMI, that is also one of the colors of the Pantone Fashion Color Report for Spring 2016. We think that the energy of this color can differentiate us from the other business magazines, that usually choose the blue or other soft colors. What do you think about this choice?”

Carola: “RED is per se the color of POWER! This is why a lot of products and brands, which are closely connected to power (like Coca Cola with their powerful soft drink, Superman with being the most powerful man in the film history or Vodafone with their Logo “power to you”) using this color. For sure this selection of color will move your business magazine more towards the direction of being a “powerful tool”. Besides this, RED is also one of the most eye-catching colors and will also in this way help to differentiate products and brands, which are offered together with a big varity of similar items.”

Gabriele: “Well, it looks like we have chosen the right one then! As a columnist for the magazine, I also write about SME’s internationalization, especially by using Web Marketing strategies that involve Social Media. Core of these strategies is the content localization, the key to get in touch with the culture of a foreign market. I believe that colors have a great impact on this as well. Are there specific colors for specific countries to be used or not used?”

Carola: “For sure, there are lot of different meanings of color around the world as well as some of the colors works for all cultures and regions similar. Two examples: YELLOW is everywhere on the world close related to the sun and a kind of “happy color”! If you will give a YELLOW pen to a child (it doesn´t matter where on the world), it will draw immediately the sun! WHITE is in China the color of mourning. It is associated with death and is used predominantly in funerals in Chinese culture. In contrast to this, WHITE is used in the Western Region as a pure and happy color for weddings.”

Gabriele: “So it’s indeed very important to localize the packaging as well as the communication because the cultural divide can be the first obstacle to a good approach of an international market.


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Defined by Going Global UK: "LEADING EXPERT IN INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES". Among the 5 major Italian marketing influencers according to Digitalic. Coordinator of the Networking Club of Philip Kotler at the Italian Marketing Foundation. The only Italian who accomplished the MIT Digital Business Strategy Executive Program about Digital Transformation (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Co-founder of Weevo, co-publisher of Il Giornale delle PMI, author of "Strategie web per i mercati esteri", Hoepli 2016 (Digital Strategies for International Markets).

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