Nothing spruces up your home like a fresh splash of color. And experts say the same strategy can revitalize your brand. Because consumers often base their buying decisions on first impressions, the color that your business wears – on its logo, stationery and even as part of office décor – is a form of shorthand that clearly communicates to the public what your enterprise stands for.

“A new color is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to communicate that something has changed,” says Allen P. Adamson, managing director of Landor Associates, a brand consultancy. “It signals the consumer to look at you with fresh eyes.” And, notes Al Ries, chairman of the branding consultancy Ries & Ries, a brand can be that much more memorable when associated with a specific color that projects its own psychological and emotional stimulus.

Business owners wanting to update their companies’ image may be tempted to take a palette and run amok with color. But, says Ries, the biggest misconception is thinking that using lots of colors in a logo makes it more attractive and powerful.

Choosing Color 101

“The trick is to use color in a judicious, clever, surprising and consistent way, but in a way you can explain,” says Ries, co-author of The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding (HarperBusiness, 2002). In other words, he says, you need a story to tie into your color choice. Single colors work best, says Ries, who describes how consumers in airline terminals simply follow the yellow to arrive at the Hertz counter. And, he adds, the color must be there for a particular reason, such as UPS’s choice of brown to signify that they’re not flashy but reliable. “If you pick a color only for cosmetic reasons, you’ll only get cosmetic results,” says Reis.

Adamson, the author of Brand Simple (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), says it’s important that the entire company be on board with the choice. “If employees feel energized, you’ll have energized results,” he says. But while adding this color to the office interiors is worthwhile, he cautions against going overboard, such as picking pen ink and coloring your hair to match your brand. “Then it becomes over the top, more about gimmick than substance,” he says. “Using color needs to be subtle and sophisticated.”

Color Branding on a Budget

You can still make color branding work for you, even if only in a limited way. High priority should be taking advantage of what Ries calls “consumer-facing opportunities,” or putting your color where your core customers can see it. For example, Reis suggests that café or food-establishment owners initially concentrate on signage, menus and servers’ uniforms, all items that patrons can’t help but notice. On the other hand, he continues, consultants need to focus their new color first on stationery, brochures and Web sites. Companies engaged in transportation and deliveries might put their initial efforts into color-branding their vehicles and trucks. Over time, he says, companies can add their new color thread to other elements of the business.

Commit to Your Color

“Color can be very important to a brand but the benefit comes only if you manage color strategically over a long period of time,” says David A. Aaker, a branding expert and vice chairman of Prophet Brand Strategy, a branding consultancy. Aaker says you don’t have to be a large company to see color-branding results, which can come about simply by using the freshly colored logo in packaging or as the centerpiece of an ad. “The important thing is that your customer base knows,” he says.

For those companies wary of retooling their look, Reis has some advice. “If your business has been flat before you make the change, it will likely continue to be flat unless you do something different,” he says. Rethinking color may bring results brighter than you can imagine.

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