The Client-Savvy Colors That Make Presentations More Effective July 7, 2015 by Joyce Walsh You put on your best outfit for client and marketing meetings. Your offices are well-appointed, reflecting the professional culture of your firm. Then you pass the presentation materials around. The colors are clichéd and difficult to read. With the flip of a page, you ve lost your chance of making a positive first impression. Your client reports and marketing presentations are arguably the most public face of your practice. How they look and the colors you choose affect the way clients and prospects respond to the information you want to convey. Color communicates information even before we begin to read the content. Leatrice Eiseman, a highly regarded color expert, notes that color adds meaning to communication, and this becomes even more important when words are not used, as in financial charts and reports. A recent study at UC Berkeley found that visual communication via charts is fundamental to the process of disseminating information. Because humans have a facility for understanding visual information, well-designed charts and other diagrams help audiences quickly understand complex ideas. Eiseman also notes that each color family conveys moods and associations that can become part of the message. Advisors can harness the power of color to engage their audience and more effectively communicate with them. Here are seven strategies for choosing colors that reflect a positive brand image and lend credibility to your message. 1. Understand warm and cool colors People perceive blue, green and violets as cool, and red, orange and yellows as warm. Cool colors and warm colors are related to a universal human experience possibly due to our association of ice and deep water with cold and fire and the sun with heat. Warm colors are energetic and demand attention. You can use red or red-orange with a white background to attract the eye and provide a focal point for your report or presentations. But a little goes a long way, so be careful. Given the context, too many reds and oranges may be perceived as aggressive and, of course, in the red has financial and investment performance connotations most advisors would rather avoid! Page 1, 2017 Advisor Perspectives, Inc. All rights reserved.
Conversely, cool blues are perceived as reserved, calm and secure. As cool colors become brighter such as turquoise they show less restraint. Changing the undertone of a color can alter its temperature; the redder a purple, the hotter it gets. Yellow-greens are earthier and warmer than the blue-greens of deep water, which are perceived as cool and clean. Identify the intended effect of the color: Do you want to convey reliability or dynamic energy? Use dark blues and greens to create a mood of reassurance and conservative associations of security. Use warm colors to create vibrancy or emphasis in a report. 2. Create a color palette A color palette is simply a group of colors that you will use consistently across all client communication and marketing collateral. What colors should you use in your color palette? The choices may seem overwhelming, but don t be daunted. These strategies will help you select a color palette that s right for your practice. First, select your anchor color. Your anchor color is the foundation around which you will build out a color palette. Your logo s primary color is usually a good place to start. Then use a color guide to fill in the palette. Build your palette from there, selecting a few similar (analagous) colors and at least one very different (complementary) color for contrast. Figure 1 shows an example of a palette based on a dark blue anchor color. The dark grays and purples are analogous colors, and the orange and brown are complementary. There are many Internet color guides such as Adobe Color and Mudcube Color Sphere that will make recommendations for a palette based on your anchor color. 3. Make smart choices for charts How many colors will you need for your palette? Start with the types of charts and graphs you use. How many bars in your typical bar chart? How many slices in your pie charts? How many indices or time series do you present in graphs? Every element will require a different color and enough contrast between them to catch the eye and distinguish one element from another. Figure 1. Sample color palette based on dark blue anchor. Source: Adobe Illustrator Color Guide A monochromatic palette, even if based on a vibrant color, can quickly put your audience to sleep and affect readability. Go for a variety of colors to hold your clients attention. Think of a performance bar chart that shows a client s portfolio performance against two indices over six time periods. If all of the bar colors are similar, the client may not see how their portfolio Page 2, 2017 Advisor Perspectives, Inc. All rights reserved.
over six time periods. If all of the bar colors are similar, the client may not see how their portfolio stands out. They may not even be able to tell the difference between the indices and the time periods. 4. Choose colors for readability Your color palette must communicate your message clearly and quickly. Dark colors provide contrast and aid legibility. Strong colors are better than pastels. If your practice includes retirees or the elderly, remember that people with visual impairments may not be able to see soft colors well. Black outlines intensify the enclosed color, while white outlines soften the color. Any color surrounded by white will seem darker, and any color surrounded by a darker color will appear brighter. For example, use black outlines to draw attention to performance numbers. Conversely, eliminate outlines when less attention is desired. 5. What about the text? Body copy and captions will almost always be in black for best legibility. You ll likely need one or two different colors from your palette for titles, headlines, subheadings and/or special elements such as callouts or quotes. 6. Be client-centered. The right colors will reflect your brand and elicit a favorable emotional response from clients. A common mistake is to select colors based on personal preferences. What if your favorite color is magenta? It may convey frivolity something best avoided when presenting a client report! Design experts talk about colors in terms of being modern, moderate and conservative, based on how much black goes into its making. Brighter colors tend to be more modern, while darker colors tend to be more conservative. For example, an advisor with a niche practice that targets McDonald s franchise owners might select a color palette with brighter primary colors, which will feel familiar to them based on their own brand palette. An advisor who focuses on physicians and their families, on the other hand, might find that darker, more conservative hues resonate better with their clients. There s no right or wrong here. Providing financial and investment advice is serious business, but that doesn t mean that all advisors should use conservative colors. Understand your brand and your audience, and select a palette that works best for your practice. Figures 2a, b and c, illustrate modern, moderate and conservative color choices, and how you could use them in client reporting and marketing presentations. Figure 2a. Modern colors: Brightest, bold, energetic Page 3, 2017 Advisor Perspectives, Inc. All rights reserved.
Source: assette.com Figure 2b. Moderate colors: Less bright, reassuring Source: assette.com Figure 2c. Conservative colors: Darker, traditional, serious Source: assette.com 7. Be contemporary Page 4, 2017 Advisor Perspectives, Inc. All rights reserved.
Colors, like everything else, go in and out of style, so update tired palettes. To project a conservative image, try a contemporary take on a darkish color. The hunter green and cranberry red favored by advisory firms in 1980s once projected stability and traditional values. Today, it s more likely to say old school. But switch that cranberry to Marsala, Pantone s Color of Year in 2015, and you ve jumped into the 21st century without making a dramatic shift in your brand identity. And if leading edge is your thing, then a bright color like Emerald, PANTONE 15-5641, is a good substitute for that hunter green. Putting it all together The colors you use in client reports reinforce the information you want to convey. When you follow these objective strategies for choosing and using color, you will create materials that will resonate with your clients. A well-chosen color palette showcases your message and helps your firm stand out in a crowded field of competitors. This article is adapted from the paper First Impressions Matter: The Importance of Color in Investment Management Presentations and Reporting, written in collaboration with Assette. The next article will focus on the 2nd pillar of a standout presentation: how the font you choose and how you use it can be as powerful as the words it forms. Joyce Walsh is a professor at Boston University College of Communication. With academic and professional backgrounds in both the arts and technology, her work has been featured in publications, exhibitions and corporate art collections around the world. Her book, Graphic Design Essentials: Skills, Software and Creative Strategies, was the first book to combine design fundamentals with creative software skills. Page 5, 2017 Advisor Perspectives, Inc. All rights reserved.