Does consistent color matter for your business?

by Toby Saalfeld

Summary

Color management benefits

Read time: 3 minutes

Consistent color is critical for creating strong, emotion-packed messaging.

It doesn't matter whether your customers require brochures, promotional mail, fund-raising banners or catalogs — consistency is crucial to the both the brand recognition and messaging impact.

Colorful objects attract the eye and the pocketbook.

According to one research study, color increases brand recognition by 80%.¹ Think Coca-Cola. McDonalds. IBM, often dubbed “Big Blue.” Do their vibrant colors stand out to you? They’re meant to.

Yet, the value of color consistency goes beyond brand recognition. In fact, this same study cites that color can improve reading comprehension by 73%; learning, 55-68%; and reading, 40%.

Today, nearly any size shop can find a color solution to fit within its budget and business goals.

The stats are persuasive. And companies purchasing print are demanding high-value color and the ability to keep it consistent, no matter the application. As such, the push for better, more affordable digital color management tools is on. The good news is that these tools have become just that: more affordable and more versatile. What was once the domain of high-end print providers has now shifted to the “printer on the street,” so to speak. Today, nearly any size shop can find a color solution to fit within its budget and business goals.

For a small subscription fee, for example, printer service providers can tap into cloud services and access color management tools that can help create a lifetime of brand recognition.

With today’s advanced color management technologies, customers no longer have to settle because of color limitations. Getting the exact right color is not only possible, its affordable — thanks to improved color management.

Maximize your color management

Given the fast pace of change and challenges, should your company or department invest in color management technology now? To most effectively make this decision, let’s consider the print landscape of the future.

The boundaries of color matching and color manipulation will continue to expand in high-end businesses, especially as traditional print services providers move to becoming marketing services providers, where consistent branding is crucial. Consistent color underpins consistent branding by generating a common “look and feel” across marketing channels. Correct color management can ensure that banners are highly saturated for visibility, brochures look natural and even screen prints on a T-shirt look right.
Print service providers producing “pleasing colors” will invest even more time and attention in color management. Smart color management leads to improvements in both operator efficiency and process control, which cut down on make-ready and production time — and ultimately increase the bottom line of any size business.
Print service providers will further demand color management solutions that help them run their business — not just a bunch of devices. They will insist on knowledgeable consultants who can recommend total solutions.
As with any other technology investment, color management tools do require an investment in personnel training. To cover this base, companies are purchasing the services of IDEAlliance Certified Color Management Professional Masters and Experts, who can ease the pain and speed results.

Your competitors are aiming to pump up customer satisfaction, reduce production time and waste, and lower overall costs. Choosing the right color path, the right tools and the right partner can help your business reach into a colorful new marketplace.

Take the challenge. Take the lead.

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¹Journal of Neuroscience, 2016. http://www.jneurosci.org/