What Is the Most Popular Color for Logos?

A recent study shows that a few colors tend to be most popular for particular types of brand and company logos.

Here's a hint: At left, the retailer Uniqlo's bold logo. In a sea of mall stores or downtown storefronts, the logo is designed to stand out. Think of Target's red-and-white bull's-eye logo, easily identifiable from the far distance of a highway or across a crowded city street. Or look at Macy's red star, a simple and quick identifier. That's why the most popular color for retailer logos is red.

For companies in the fields of marketing, public relations, healthcare, and technology, blue tends to be the most popular color, according to the study, because of associations with "knowledge, tranquility, security, and trust."

The Cigna Health Insurance logo is mainly blue. So is the logo of Anthem. So is Progressive. And Geico (yes, the gecko is green, but the logo is blue).

Next time you see a retailer's or company's logo, think about why it chose its color(s) and how color contributes to positive marketing associations.

Brands Step Up for MiLB Sponsorship and Merchandise

Dunkin' Donuts is the latest big-league sponsor to step up to a marketing deal with a Minor League Baseball (MiLB) team. This week, it agreed to buy naming rights to a new 9,000-seat MiLB stadium being built in Hartford, CT for the Hartford Yard Goats. 

The VP of field marketing for Dunkin' Donuts says: "We didn't need sabermetrics to evaluate this opportunity. Simply put, baseball is known as America's greatest pastime ... now we're ready to say, 'Play ball, Hartford.'"

Sponsorships with MiLB can build brand awareness and image, strengthen associations with sports and family activities, enhance community relations, and open new cross-promotion opportunities. All kinds of businesses are doing business with MiLB, from banks and stores to toy companies and--yes, wine.

MiLB doesn't just attract big brands. Local businesses are also involved, for the exposure, the build-up of trust, and the positive associations. The Reading (PA) Fightin Phils have a hot dog vendor who's so popular that he gets his own bobblehead. When a Phil is walked, the scoreboard calls it a WaWa Walk (WaWa is a sponsor, get it?). The Indianapolis Indians have set out to consciously develop such a close integration with the game, to attract and retain solid sponsorships.

Anyone who has attended a MiLB game knows that the sale of hats and other merchandise is part of the experience, as well. Annual sales of MiLB merchandise throughout the US and Canada hit a new record high of $60.3 million in 2014. And the Indianapolis Indians are among the teams hitting a home run in merchandise sales.

The Food Industry's "Dynamic, Disruptive, and Transformative Time"

Stephen Hughes, CEO of the natural foods firm Boulder Brands, tells Fortune the industry is going through "the most dynamic, disruptive, and transformational time" he's seen during 37 years in the food business.

Boulder owns brands like Smart Balance, Earth Balance, and Glutino. His brands are part of the disruption. Increasingly, consumers are reading food labels with great care and concluding that less is more--less processing, more nutritional value.

Brand trust is vital in this brave new world of fresher, healthier packaged foods. No wonder Heinz is fighting mad over Boulder Brands' plan to put its Smart Balance name on frozen foods. Heinz owns the Smart Ones brand of frozen foods and objects to what it sees as a close similarity of brands that might confuse consumers.

A few months ago, the CEO of Campbell Soup commented on "the mounting distrust of so-called Big Food, the large food companies and legacy brands on which millions of consumers have relied on for so long." Alas for Campbell Soup, sales of its core product are stagnant to slowly dropping. But happily, the company's acquisition of Bolthouse Farms fresh produce and Plum Organics is evidence of its growing experience with trusted natural foods brands.

Interestingly, mainstream supermarket chain Kroger owns what appears to be the largest natural-food brand in the country: Simple Truth, barely 2 years old and already ringing up more than $1.2 billion in annual sales. That's a lot of sales and a lot of brand trust--and a lot of disruption caused by a major retailer that distributes major packaged-foods products.