Here’s a scary story. I’m driving to a meeting and get stopped at an intersection. While waiting for the light to change, my eyes dart sideways to a bus stop where there was a large poster for a local university. Trying to entice teenagers as well as targeting adults seeking continuing education courses, the ad was painted in a strong pumpkin orange background with thick stenciled yellow text and strokes of dark brown. The copywriting was bold, the message was clear; but what did this make me think of?

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I admit, my stomach was probably getting the best of me, but the fact remains that a banner ad for a college, or any organization for that matter, should not make me draw such a divergent association. Alas though, you cannot blame the university for this brand linkage failure; it’s Reese’s fault. Yes, blame those yummy peanut butter cups.

This candy factory’s marketing engine is so omnipresent that whenever the colors of yellow, orange and dark brown appear together in a billboard, TV commercial or any other advertising vehicle, we can’t help ourselves but think of chocolaty peanut butter treats (at least here in North America). It’s been permanently etched into our cerebrum. What’s funny (and scary) is that, through catchy and persistent marketing, they effectively ‘own’ that color combination. And any business that tries to rival them for that ‘color space’ is fighting a steep uphill battle.

This is not to deny the intricate connection between a brand’s symbols and its primary paints. Indeed, it’s hard to describe any brand’s use of shades and tints without also mentioning their special orientations, logo designs or specific fonts. So for now, let’s keep the majority of our focus on color combinations and the patterns formed therein. As a warm-up, for each of the following descriptions of color combinations, guess which iconic company I am hinting at:

1. A short string of bolded royal purple and orange letters against a white background
2. Three horizontal strips thinly separated by white; top and bottom bands are standard orange and red respectively; the middle strip is twice the thickness of the other two and jade in color.
3. Curved upside-down horseshoe lines of embossed lemon yellow against a backdrop of electric red.
4. A white-bordered circle split into halves with imperial red on top and medium blue on the bottom; both colors separated by a thick wavy white line; circle set on a background of slightly darker blue.
5. Bright yellow text or slender borderlines beset by a mass of forest green.
6. Centered medium blue text on a white background with one broad horizontal strip above and one below; top band is the same blue color as text and bottom band is golden.

Answer Key:

1. FedEx
2. 7-Eleven
3. McDonalds
4. Pepsi
5. John Deere
6. Visa

Implications For Hotels

So, what do sugary snacks, education institutions and a pop quiz on corporate color usage have to do with hotels? Everything.

The last thing you want when an individual looks at one of your logos, advertisements, promotions, swag bags, company pens or social media uploads is for them to immediately start daydreaming about another unrelated brand. When this happens, your efforts are unintentionally reinforcing the awareness and mindshare of that other brand. Or, worse, your marketing efforts make consumers think of your competition.

To illustrate this point, allow me to use another F&B-oriented example that happens to me on a weekly basis. You see a person on the sidewalk with a latte in one hand – its container a cylindrical white paper cup with a single ring of dark spring green. This is in itself a form of passive marketing, but out of curiosity, what brand jumps to mind? Starbucks, anyone? The branding machine behind this coffee goliath has worked tirelessly over the years to ensure that whenever you see even a sliver of their archetypal green in a facet with one iota of a relation to coffee, you automatically think Starbucks.

Now imagine one of the other major coffee chains undergoing a rebranding process and deciding upon, say, a mint leaf or teal shade of green as its logo’s prevailing dye. Even though both these hues are completely distinguishable at first glance from the aforementioned spring green, they are nevertheless greens and this entrant’s marketing efforts will, at least partially, buttress Starbucks’s mindshare. The work that the world’s largest coffeehouse company has done to instill this near-involuntary association, in my mind, represents the pinnacle of branding – a single color or symbol is all that’s needed to stir up thoughts of a company, no words required.

And this is where I want you to take your brand. The distilled lesson for hotels is that you shouldn’t utilize the same colors as other properties in your territory or space and you should do a detailed competitive analysis to ensure as minimal an overlap as possible. And if you insist on a color overlap, you better be able to justify any resultant brand confusion. So, let’s narrow our discussion to solely hotels to help you maximize the usage of your colors.

The Symbolic Color Wheel

I’m going to assume that you are already well acquainted with the connotations that certain colors can have, or are supposed to have, on our brains. Red is the color of passion and boldness while green denotes wisdom and prosperity, and so on. If you need a refresher on these, Google can help you locate many satisfactory resources. Just be sure to read multiple sources as many of the definitions contradict one another.

Looking beyond individual colors, the next step is to examine how tinting and shading can affect one’s interpretation. Take blue for instance. A deep, strong shade of navy can signify royalty or a brand with more mature, conservative values while a neon turquoise suggests a wild, adventurous energy more aligned with youth. And what about pastels? A washed-out or sun-bleached cyan is indicative of a fun, tropical, beach-like setting. As another exercise, pick another primary color and ruminate on how increasing or decreasing its intensity may affect consumer perceptions.

Without diverging too much into neuropsychology, what’s important to remember here is that pictures and colors will always speak louder than words because letters and numbers require additional analysis by our modern brain centers (specifically the prefrontal cortex) to form meaning. In contrast, images can often bypass this extra cognizant step during the millisecond process of interpreting our surroundings. Moreover, they can bypass our logic centers and proceed straight to the emotional subdivisions in our brains. As such, the hues you choose for your logo are critical towards making a strong first impression that’s both congruent with your brand values and discernible from your competitors.

The Big Chains

Take a minute to dwell on some of the largest hotel chains, specifically their logos and the colors of their brand symbols. If I were to mention a certain hospitality organization’s logo with a capital ‘H’ formed by three asymmetrical, raised white swooshes against a square background of vibrant emerald green, what comes to mind? Holiday Inn, perhaps?

Several interesting questions and answers stem from this. The first is obvious: what does this particular use of green imply for the brand? As a brighter, more energetic shade, I’d say the hotel chain is attempting to link itself with youth culture more so than older demographics. Next, would Holiday Inn’s ‘H’ logo still be as recognizable without its colored gradient backdrop? Lastly, can you name any other major hotel groups that use green as the dominant hue in their logos? No? Perhaps Holiday Inn is like the Starbucks of the hospitality industry with every other brand feeling the urge to distance itself by claiming some other spoke on the color wheel.

Marriott has a similar color dominance in the hospitality space, only it’s red this time around. In fact, when I think about the color red and hotels, it’s hard not to conjure an image of the Marriott logo. What’s remarkable about this chain’s color usage is that the red is balanced – not too dark or faded and not jumping-off-the-screen bright. It’s a sobering crimson hue, evocative of the brand’s moderately upscale target segment and its middle-of-the-road values. This red is also repeated and reinforced throughout many of Marriott’s subsidiaries – Courtyard, Fairfield Inn, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites and TownePlace Suites – all of these examples using the same logo template.

To me, this traditional red instantly communicates a ‘you know exactly what you are getting’ sentiment, and maybe that’s the point. It’s a color you can trust. If Holiday Inn is likened as the Starbucks of the hotel world, then Marriott could be the Roman Empire, with its legions of red-caped staffers marching around the globe. But, what if this chain used a slightly brighter iteration of shimmering ruby or intense cherry as its color? Would it stir up the same feelings?

What’s also interesting about Marriott is its subsidiaries that don’t use its trademark red, specifically for this article I bring up Ritz-Carlton and MOXY. One of the most revered chains around, Ritz-Carlton’s logo is an iconic profile of a lion-headed chess piece atop the hotel’s name, coming at us in black, blue or burnt gold and no mention or hint of its parent corporation. The latter brand, MOXY, is a still-in-development launch by Marriott using orchid purple for its stylish cursive lettering, as if their chief inspiration was Ocean Drive in South Beach, Miami. One look at this animated color and you know you’re in for a completely different experience than that offered at a typical Marriott property.

Tips For Independents

There are countless other examples for the big chains that I could have mentioned, but I’ll keep it at just a few for now. I implore you to peruse other majors and scrutinize how they use colors in tandem with certain fonts and illustrations to evoke their core values or to set up certain expectations. The more you understand logo design, the better you can calibrate whether your own current logo is communicating the right message, or whether you are past due for a total brand overhaul.

One of the main commonalities I have noticed from examining the big chains is: keep it simple yet powerful. Don’t use too many colors – one or two which are both directly related to your brand’s values, and often complementary. Next, ensure that any drawings aren’t overly complex, preferably something that aligns with your target audience and namesake (recall the partially leafed tree utilized by Four Seasons). Furthermore, with a deeper understanding of how our brains process letters differently than images, you should strive to have as few words as possible in your logo. After all, why use text when pictures will suffice?

The ‘simple yet powerful’ mantra also suggests congruency – your color and graphic usage naturally fitting with both the environment and the expectations of the principal demographics you hope to attract. The main point of this exercise, however, is to determine whether the emblem for your property or small group of properties is immediately recognizable. Your logo must resonate.

Starbucks doesn’t need to label each paper cup with a circular scrawl of text anymore; the brand is so universally pervasive that each tea or latte sold needs only a spring green print of the wavy haired, star-jeweled siren. Ditto for Apple and Nike or any other at that level. Although these Fortune 500 companies are lofty examples to emulate, they nonetheless represent the sterling direction for where you must take your logo design.

Your Colors Are Your Flag

If you want to understand the use of colors in symbols, you need only look to civilization’s turbulent past filled with warring nations, empires, republics, dynasties, sultanates, duchies and fiefdoms, and a multitude of flags and coats of arms to discern them all. Keep in mind that literacy was few and far between up until the modern era, so states deemed it best to communicate their strengths, virtues and allegiances entirely without the written language.

Importantly, flags are a representative item whose worth extends far beyond the cost of the materials and labor required to produce them. They are objects to be proud of and to protect – the idolized eagle standard of each Roman legion providing a clear-cut example. So, if you hold your logo with the same esteem as a nation would its flag, how would this affect your corporate culture? Would this newfound admiration also permeate through to the positive impression left on travelers?

The adoration of flags and coats of arms didn’t solely come from their intricate design, but also from their repetition. If we are to translate this principle to your hotel, then you must look for places onsite, online and in giveaways – any situation where you can prominently display your logo and your brand’s colors to guests. Off the top of my head, think print materials, websites, social media, towels, bathrobes, pillowcases, in-room pens and merchandising products. But this also extends to the fabrics used for furniture, the color of your linens and artwork chosen for the lobby. All should be congruent.

As a final example, I tender to you my own marketing agency – LMA Communications Inc. (www.lma.ca) – which has a logo comprised of fuchsia offset by slate gray encasing an illustration of a llama and the company’s initials in a sleek, sans serif font. The use of this magenta (in the office, we call it llamagenta!) alongside that particular style of typeface suggests a firm that’s hip, modern and bold in its creative deliverables (at least that was our intention), while the gray gives it balance, strength and integrity. By all means, browse our website for yourself. Do you perceive it the same way?

I’m only beginning to breach the topic of color for marketing and branding purposes. My hope here is that from henceforth you will be curious about how certain combinations make you feel. Keep the thought on the back of your mind and be receptive to its more nifty applications in the coming weeks and months. In most cases, aligning your colors with your brand means a little tweaking here and there, but even these minute changes can make an astounding difference in consumer awareness and, ultimately, bookings.

(Published by Larry Mogelonsky in Hotel Executive June 2, 2013)