Why Color Psychology Might Be Your Brand’s Biggest Mistake—And a Sensory Nightmare Too!

Color is a powerful tool that impact people beyond visual aesthetics. It shapes emotions, influences behavior, guides understanding, and even enhances well-being. Yet, many businesses fail to harness its true potential, often falling into the same common myths about colors and their use (or misuse!).

Too often, businesses rely solely on 'color meaning' or basic color psychology, overlooking the deeper potential of this powerful tool. By doing so, they miss the opportunity to create meaningful emotional connections, shape perceptions and experiences, and craft a communication strategy that feels truly cohesive and impactful.

So here are four key mistakes businesses make with their brand colors—and how to avoid them. (The last two might surprise you!)

1. Failing to Adapt Colors to the Context

Imagine you’re hosting a brand event where delicious food is served, and you properly stick to your brand guidelines, because that's how it's done.

Would those colors enhance the taste, smell, and texture of the food, or would they completely overpower the dining experience? Or picture a small, crowded space where your vibrant brand colors quickly become overwhelming instead of welcoming....

The truth is, colors don’t exist in isolation—they’re deeply influenced by their context. Elements like space, lighting, texture, and material all play a role in how colors are perceived.

The same shade of blue will feel vastly different under natural sunlight than it does in a dimly lit room. It might feel peaceful in one situation, and heavy and aloof in another, completely transforming people's experience and mood.

This is where brands often go wrong. They rigidly stick to specific color codes and brand guidelines without considering how the environment shapes the emotional response to those colors. To create an unforgettable experience, your palette must be flexible and adaptable to the setting.

Solution: Instead of seeing your hex codes as non-negotiable rules, think of them as guidelines. For each brand color, consider adding variations that can be used in different contexts. For example, in a dining event, prioritize tones and combinations that elevate the gustatory experience based on the type of food served, while in a small, bustling venue, certain tones and pairings can help create a sensation of space and reduce the perceived noise.

2. Ignoring How Colors Shape Relationships Across the Customer Journey

Their role shifts depending on the context and the relationship between the brand and the people experiencing it. A color that grabs attention on a flyer might overwhelm in a physical space, while a shade that energizes a brainstorming room could hinder focus in a workspace. To tell the right story, we must consider both the context and the stage of the relationship.

For example:

• Marketing Materials for Different Touchpoints: Your brand colors should catch attention and instantly convey your vibe. But context is key—a vibrant hue or strong contrast might work wonders on a small flyer to grab attention, but the same color or contrast combination plastered across a large event backdrop could feel aggressive or even alienating. The question is: What story are you telling at this touchpoint? A flyer introducing your brand to a new audience serves a different purpose than an event designed for loyal customers. Each requires a tailored emotional message.
• Retail Spaces: Here, colors serve as a navigator, guiding customer behavior and creating an atmosphere that aligns with the brand’s identity. Quantity, spatial organization, and light can greatly affect color perception in this context, making them more distracting or overwhelming than intended, disrupting the experience.
• Offices: In workspaces, colors play a supporting role, fostering focus, productivity, and well-being. For spaces where people spend long hours, the palette should align with the purpose of the room—an energizing brainstorming area calls for different hues than a calming space for focused work, or a creative environment.

Failing to adapt colors to the unique demands of each context risks creating disjointed or uncomfortable experiences that confuse rather than captivate.

Solution: Map out your customer journey and consider the emotional and functional needs at each stage. Ask yourself: What is the relationship between the audience and the brand here? Use this insight to guide how your colors are applied across different touchpoints, ensuring your palette tells a consistent, meaningful story throughout the journey.

3. Overlooking the Sensorial Impact of Color

We’ve all seen it: spaces designed to be “low-sensory” for neurodiverse people, yet bright colors, bold contrasts, and multiple directional lights are used.

Creating a silent space to please sensory sensitivities is great, but adding visual noise ends up producing the same overwhelming effect, as colors stimulate olfactory, auditory, haptic, and spatial sensations. And more.

Our senses don’t operate in isolation. Loud colors can feel just as overwhelming as loud noises, especially for individuals who are neurodiverse or highly sensitive to stimuli.

This creates a sensory disconnect. While brands may think they align with trends like neurodiversity or mindfulness, their execution tells a different story.

For spaces like wellness centers, offices, or anywhere people need to focus or unwind, it’s essential to use colors that support the intended purpose of the environment. This often means, using variations of shades, tints, or saturations than the original brand colors, especially selected considering the space and the other sensory stimuli to create a synesthetic, congruent experience.

Solution: View color as part of a larger sensory experience. Consider how it interacts with lighting, sound, and even textures to create harmony. You can read more about this topic here and here.

4. Thinking of Brand Colors as a Marketing Tool Only

Your brand colors aren’t just for ads, websites, and flyers—they’re a foundational element of your entire brand ecosystem, including internal spaces like offices. Unfortunately, many businesses overlook how their colors impact employee well-being and performance.

When used strategically, colors in workspaces can:

• Boost focus and productivity by 25%, making tight deadlines less daunting.
• Reduce sick days and health-related absences, cutting costs on workforce budgets.
• Foster a positive work environment, leading to greater employee motivation and alignment with the brand mission.

Yet many office designs fail to account for this, opting for bland, uninspired palettes that drain energy rather than enhance it. Or use disruptive colors that deteriorate employees' experience.

Solution: Assess how your brand colors influence the physical spaces your team occupies. An energizing red may work to catch the eye of a new audience, but an entirely different tone might be better suited for focused work areas. Colors are to be chosen based on the goal, the desired behaviors, the surface where they are applied, the type and quantity of light in the space, and the length of time one spends in there. All these factors must be considered when selecting the hues, shades, and combinations.

Transform Your Brand Colors into an Unforgettable Story

Strategic color implementation goes beyond visuals—it’s about crafting meaningful, multisensory experiences that resonate with your audience and support well-being. Whether you’re hosting an event, designing an office, or refining your marketing materials, your brand colors should tell a cohesive and congruent story that adapts to every environment, while conveying your brand essence and values. (Show, don't tell!)

The key, as I also mention in my book “Colors & Fairy Tales”, is to understand that there is so much more to color beyond their meaning or psychology, and by learning how to feel them, we can use them to express the brand in a more congruent, aligned way while also considering how they impact the sensory and emotional experience of your customers.

Do you want to make your next event or marketing campaign truly memorable and more cost-effective? Let's talk! Book a call now and let's see how we can use color storytelling to enhance your brand experience!