Monthly Archives: December 2015

Color Psychology : How Colors Influence Our Mind

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Black and White aren’t that bad, but as Joseph Addison said, “Colors speak all languages.” Colors have a direct impact on the brain and our thought process. Colors depict personality, feelings, emotions, messages and influences our psychology.

It is widely understood that colors affect human behavior and emotion. This can be used by businesses to create an advantageous edge. Colors are a major part of branding in any industry starting from Company logo, brochure, corporate colors, office designs and others. Though, there is a lot of scope of research on how color influences our mind, but a study found out that around 90% of the purchase decision is based on color alone.

Different colors are known to trigger different emotions in us and hence, they are associated with different human attributes as well. Moreover, different cultures also have different connotations for colors.

Color and Temperature

Experts feel that color can be associated with people’s perception temperature. Colors like red and yellow gives a warmer sensation, while colors like blue and green are known to be more ‘cooler’ shades. This helps designers to use these appropriately in interiors, apparels or even specific products.

Color and Emotion

Colors evoke a person’s emotional quotient in different ways. Sally Augustin, Ph.D. and an environmental psychologist highlighted few basic facts on how colors can affect emotional and behavioral actions. For example, someone might dislike blue color, if he/she is reminded of some allergy medicines of his/her childhood. Similarly, a person might have an attachment or aversion to certain colors, which is related to their emotional self.

Color psychology also varies based on gender as well. Recent research by experts talks about the relation between colors and emotional health. Some of the general beliefs about different colors are as follows:

RED: This is the color of power and force. Red stimulates our mind to work faster and reduces analytical thinking. It is also the color of warning. So, mostly you will see the warning signs in this color.

BLUE: This is a more acceptable color and depicts serenity or smoothness.

YELLOW: This is the color of purity.

ORANGE: it is associated with healing and increases energy levels. It indicates good value, so brands use it to depict trust and support.

PINK: It is mostly associated with care or babies, which helps to calm people down and give a feeling of happiness.

GREEN: This is again related to acceptance and trust. Brands use this color to bring out concepts of growth and prosperity.

WHITE: This is sometimes associated with boredom or sadness. However, both black and white have a wide variety of meanings in different cultures and races.

These are just a few general connotations, which can vary over customs and religions too.

Color psychology is a vast and yet to be fully explored. Once documented the findings will be of great insight for brands to enhance their look and feel. The eyes see the colors, the mind interprets them and the brain indicates the action. It is no longer about a single color, people are experimenting with different shades and hues to give brands- products and services, a whole new perspective. Colors are an integral part of our lives, and they strongly help to make or break market decisions.

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The Video Impact On Digital Marketing

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The concept of ‘seeing is believing’ can be challenged in modern times, but in digital marketing, brands proactively use the sense of vision and hearing to stimulate other human senses, that can trigger an association. Digital Marketing, mainly prefers to online campaigns, including promotion and sales over social media and other digital platforms like websites, e-commerce portals and others.

How impactful is video marketing?

Recent research shows that video users grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users. It also showed that nearly 1 in 4 B2B marketers did not know the ROI of the video content that they are using. This is because that they are only tracking the basic parameters like number of views or shares. However, businesses, which go a step further to track advanced data  have experienced a 2X improvement in video ROI. This is done by integrating their video data into the CRM system and sales pipelines to yield effective results.

Though, the importance of video marketing is perceived by 76% of marketers, but only 15% have integrated into their system and using it properly. However, the number of marketers, who is using video data has increased to about 67% in the last year alone.

Experts feel the video marketing is the in-thing and it can be used to optimum advantage. A video advert on the landing page of any website results in 80% conversions and 64% consumers are likely to buy a product, after watching the video ad.

How video impacts digital marketing?

Seeing is selling: As pointed out earlier, consumers are likely to buy if they see a live demo. So, video ads show consumers a lot more than normal print ads. Video is a way to engage the audience in a better way with lights, music, colors and the message. It tries to target human emotions in a better way.

Audience Engagement: Audience reach is much more and it helps to build brand visibility and viewership. Videos, just do not tell us ‘what’ the product/service is, but also tells us ‘how’ and ‘why’. They show us a story, which we can relate to.  Research shows that with video content, the chances of making into the first page listing of Google increases by 53 times.

Integration: Video content, when integrated with other web content is one of the most powerful marketing methods, with a higher reach. A blog post multiplies its viewership, if there is an accompanying video. A research by Marketingland says, that video has 50 more chances of getting an organic page rank in Google then just plain text.

Targeting and Measurement: With TV commercials, it is difficult to target the right audience and measure the ROI. However, in digital marketing, video can be used to target a particular niche as well as reach the bigger populations. It is also easier to measure the ROI. YouTube is the second largest search engine, which has been an effective platform to promote video content, says a study by Social Media Today. Video in digital media can also be customized to give the audience the necessary information, as well as entertainment. It is a much cheaper option than TV commercials. Smartphone users are among the highest, who access video content and are likely to turn into future prospects. YouTube recorded 4 billion hours of video usage per month. With large volumes, video marketing will surely reap the desired benefits after initial investments.

How experts have predicted the future of video marketing?

Video marketing has picked up well across different platforms like mobile, social media, and even hoardings. The format of video ads have also differ over different media. According to a new study, mobile viewers prefer a vertical video experience. For example, a full screen vertical video ad on Snapchat will fetch a 9x higher completion rate than a horizontal video ad.

Social media platforms like Facebook, who are likely to get 75% of their ad revenue from mobile by 2016 are also integrating their own video player. Facebook has already got 1 million video views each day. With the growing popularity of video marketing, experts feel that 74% of internet traffic will be video content by 2017. Video marketing is here to stay and marketers need to make the most and best out of it.

Conclusion:

Over the next 3 to 5 years, about 3 out of 4 brand marketers and ad agency executives will give importance to original digital programming like TV programming. If you have a product or service to sell, and yet to use video marketing to your advantage, then you are probably missing out on a lot of sales opportunities and consumer engagement. So, it is time you implement and integrate video marketing to promote your business to cater to the new-age buyers over digital marketing.

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Differences Between a Graphic Designer & an Illustrator!

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If you can imagine things and turn it into reality, you have a creative cocoon ready to burst open. Two of the most prominent profiles that can interest a creative person are Graphic Designing and Illustration. Both of these might sound similar, but there is a marked difference between them in terms of job description and deliverables.

Though, both the professionals work with visual output, the nature of work, job responsibilities and technical requirements are quite different. The following pointers will compare and contrast between these two roles from different aspects:

Definition

graphic designer may use a combination of typography, visual arts and page layout techniques to produce a final result. Graphic design often refers to both the process (designing) by which the communication is created and the products (designs) which are generated. A graphic designer works on the entire packaging of the message, which needs to be conveyed. They can work better on entire websites, brochures and other business requirements.

An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. An illustrator works on fine arts, drawings and brings out the communication in parts to make a complete picture. They can work better on logos, colour, texture and other aspects of an image.

Job Description

An illustration mainly works with the visual elements like style and texture. Today illustrators use vector softwares to create and develop wonderful 2-D line arts or pictures. Often, they resort to the traditional ways like pen and paper to convey the right emotion.

On the contrary, a graphic designer has a set guidelines and standards to follow. For them, it is not just the image, but coding, designing, typography, layout, texts, photography, videos, interactive media and a lot more. They aim to create deliverables to sell/promote a brand in the commercial space. They might need help from illustrators too. There are many basic to sophisticated softwares, which are available for graphic designers to create and implement ideas.

Deliverables

Graphic designers are mostly associated with website design, product packaging, image development, media and brand promotions, motion components and others. However, an illustrator focuses on logos, design of product packaging, book illustrations, magazine covers, and others.

Working Style

Graphic designers mainly work with big companies like manufacturing, automobile, or consumer products, advertising firms and others. Illustrators are mostly found in comic book houses, publishing firms, advertising agencies, fashion firms and similar organizations.

We see that both the fields are overlapping, yet different in a few respects. Both,  can work independently or complementingeach other towards the goal of a project. Sometimes, it is said, that an illustrator can be a good designer, but the reverse is not true. Because, illustration is more like an inner skill, just similar to drawing. However, both of them can work as freelancers or with creative firms or advertising agencies.

For all professionals, it is important to have proper portfolios for the sales pitch. So, if you are clear on the path that serves you best, it is time to get started and get going.

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