Branding and What Humans Buy : Consumer Perception in Brand Building

Many of you who are already into marketing and advertising know that branding is the most important part of brand building. Without proper branding, you cannot take your brand or product into the market successfully. Even if you try, you will fail drastically.

I know many of you are thinking:

“We already know this.”

But then, what is the real secret of marketing?

Let me tell you this clearly. I am not the world’s greatest marketer, and I have not launched the biggest marketing campaigns. But I have learned, observed, and tested things at the scale I could, and this is what I’ve understood.

Branding cannot be done without understanding colors and the emotions they trigger in humans.

I don’t know how many of you believe in astrology or even understand it, but even astrology says that every color carries a certain energy that influences life.

Interestingly, this is not just belief. It has also been scientifically observed that every color carries specific emotions and energies that it communicates.

A Small Exercise

Close your eyes for a few seconds and imagine a rainbow.

Now tell me:

Which color did you notice first, or which color felt most visible?

Most of you probably saw red, right?

Some of you may have seen blue.

How was I able to predict this?

This is not magic, and no astrology is involved here.

It is natural.

Red has the highest visibility and wavelength. That’s why red is used by brands that want to attract, excite, create obsession, love, lust, energy, and even a sense of danger.

Attention is also associated with red because it creates a sense of urgency among people.

It’s funny when you think about it.

The color of love and the color of danger are the same.

Ironical, right?

Jokes apart, this is why red is heavily used by food and beverage brands like McDonald’s, Domino’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, and many more.

It has been observed that the color red sparks hunger, attraction, and pulls people towards the brand.

Even brands like Red Bull use it for similar reasons.

Of course, there are exceptions. Some food or consumer brands may not use red, but I am talking about the majority.

Colors and the Emotions They Reflect

Red

Passion, excitement, love

Pink

Soft, reserved, earthy

Purple

Mysterious, noble, glamorous

Blue

Wisdom, hope, reason, peace, trust, security

Green

Nature, growth, freshness, safety, savings

Yellow

Hope, joy, danger, attention, focus

Orange

Warmth, kindness, joy

White

Truth, indifference, peace

Black

Noble, mysterious, cold, strong, elite

Another Exercise

Among the brands mentioned below, try to identify the primary emotion the brand wants to convey:

• DMart
• Apollo Hospitals
• Baskin Robbins
• Swiggy
• Hungama (Cartoon Channel)

With this exercise, you will be compelled to think about why these brands are using these specific colors.

Let me give you a hint:

Look at their objective and target audience.

If you understand that, you will find the right answer.

I always give this exercise in my live classes. Many students reading this might already know the answers.

But this exercise opens your brain.

I am sure that after this, you will start observing brands around you more closely.

You will become curious about why a brand is using a particular color, and you will start noticing branding mistakes that brands make in their campaigns.

Fonts Also Convey Emotions

Just like colors, fonts also play a very important role in branding because they also convey emotions.

Let’s understand this with a simple example.

Imagine you are writing a love letter to someone.

But instead of writing it on paper, you are designing it on Canva.

You now have to choose the right font.

The font you choose matters.

Seems funny, but this is the truth.

Generally, fonts are divided into two major categories:

Serif Fonts

Serif fonts depict tradition, authority, and elegance through small decorative strokes at the ends of letters.

They are commonly used in:

• Books
• Newspapers
• Formal documents

This is because they enhance readability for long texts and convey trust and a classic feel.

Sans Serif Fonts

Sans Serif typography depicts modernity, minimalism, and cleanliness.

The term comes from the French word sans (meaning “without”) and the Dutch word schreef (meaning “line” or “stroke”).

These typefaces lack the small decorative strokes at the ends of letters.

As a result, they often feel:

• Modern
• Clean
• Minimal
• Contemporary

What Colors and Fonts Decide

The colors and typography used in your branding decide:

• What type of audience you attract
• Their age group
• Their social class
• Their gender preferences
• Their perception of your brand

Everything depends on this.

Bad branding is enough to make a brand fail in the market.

No celebrity endorsement and no amount of paid ads can save it.

The Jaguar Example

A recent example you may have seen is Jaguar, a famous luxury automotive brand.

After rebranding, the brand faced massive criticism on social media.

Many people felt the brand had lost its identity and accused it of being out of touch, saying it looked like it was redesigned by woke Gen Z interns.

Whether those criticisms were fair or not is a separate discussion.

But the lesson remains the same:

Brand identity matters.

When people connect emotionally with a brand, changing that identity can create strong reactions.

Final Thoughts

If you are a marketer, creative agency owner, or business owner, keep all these things in mind before starting branding or designing a logo for your brand.

A logo is not just a symbol.

A color is not just a color.

A font is not just a font.

Everything communicates something.

The best brands understand this.

And more importantly, they understand the humans they are communicating with.

Written By : Joshi, Kaustubh (2026). Branding and What Humans Buy: The Role of Colors, Typography, and Consumer Perception in Brand Building.

Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaustubh-joshi-273232130/