These companies have something in common. What could it be? Besides the fact that they are fast food chains, they all use the color red. This is not a coincidence. Using color is one of many tactics companies use to communicate with customers. Saying no to fast food is hard enough, and these red logos are designed to make it even harder for us to ignore it.
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Why do so many companies have red in their logos?
The average person can see about 10 million colors, but red is special. It is one of the first colors important enough for our ancestors to be named. Before the development of the alphabet and writing, human language was surprisingly colorless. There were names for “black”, “white”, “red”, but that was all. The name for the color blue did not appear until thousands of years later.
As a result we feel a deeper bond with red than with other colors on the spectrum. We respond to it in ways that work to the advantage of fast food chains. Scientists have discovered that the color red can create a feeling of urgency. It also has an “innate ability” to stimulate our appetite. When you combine these two facts, you have the perfect recipe for attracting the attention of a hungry customer who wants to eat. And fast!
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The red logo is not just a welcome sign. It's a clever way to seduce our brains
It's not clear why the color red makes us feel this way. This may have to do with the place of origin of the word “red”. In many ancient languages, the name for the color red was derived from the word “blood”. For example, “red” in Hebrew looks like this and is pronounced “ah-dohm”, while “blood” looks like this and is pronounced “dahm”.
Red has changed over thousands of years since its “bloody” beginnings. In the Middle Ages, red clothes were worn by royal families as a symbol of social status.
Nowadays, in many areas of India, brides wear red dresses to their weddings. Red is currently one of the few colors positively perceived in various cultures around the world. It's no wonder that companies devote so much attention to rethinking their logos. Ultimately, we are visual creatures.
Despite having five senses, 80 percent the information that our brain processes every day reaches us through our eyes. Research by the marketing company WebPageFX showed that 85 percent consumers chose a given product over another based on color. 80 percent respondents stated that colors make brands memorable.
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Just think what the McDonald's logo would look like in blue, green or pink. It's just not the same.
