The problem with red

Colour is one of the key ways that organizations brand themselves. If they pick a weird colour they will not have to compete for the consumer's attention. However, if they pick a popular colour, such as red, then they will have to compete in a very crowded segment.

In addition to the three organizations listed above, I've made a short list of another fifty or so other organizations, from Coke to Air Canada, that also hang their identity on the colour red. I'm sure that with a bit of research I could come up with another couple of thousand organizations who've also "hitched their wagon" to the colour red.

In lots of cases you have more than one company in the same category using the same colour. In mobile telephones in Canada both Virgin and Rogers use red. The Bank of Nova Scotia and HSBC also both use red.

For political parties the colour red has different associations depending on the country. The Liberal Party in Canada, the Republican Party in the United States and the Labour Party in the United Kingdom.

So, while red may be popular and a safe choice with consumers, it very popularity means that consumer may have already made a number of potentially competing associations with the colour.

To avoid competition, you could always go with brown. When you think of brown, do you think of any other brand apart from UPS?