Color is an important factor to keep in mind as you select personalized business gifts. After all, your logo keytag, or whatever item you choose, will represent your company. By choosing the right color, you have the opportunity to finesse the impression you make on prospective customers and clients. Do you want to convey that your product or service is both exciting and wholesome? That's what one popular canned soup company did in choosing red (excitement) and white (purity) for the labels of their popular soups. The soup company's labels became iconic, and were the subject of Andy Worhol art pieces—all based on red and white.



Or would you rather have customers think of your product or service as trustworthy and dependable? True blue is the color that has this effect. Blue has been working on those round oatmeal canisters for a few generations now. (After all, if you can't trust oatmeal, what can you trust?)

Think carefully about the kind of "attitude" your product or service should have, to attract the customer base you're going after. You might use color to add elements to your corporate image that wouldn't be found there otherwise. Raisins are a pretty standard, ho-hum kind of snack. Marketing 101 says that's why the best-selling raisin brand packages its little boxes of fruit in red (excitement) and yellow (happiness). The product inside might be ordinary, but the package coloring ramps up the excitement level by at least a few notches.

Is a neutral right for you? If your company or service involves helping your customers go in a "greener" direction, you should choose the most natural color possible, such as unbleached cotton for a tote bag or t-shirt. Avoiding extra dyes shows your potential customers your company is sincere about helping the planet. Printing your logo in green ink on natural cotton drives the point home even more.

Here are some of the effects that other colors might have on your customers:

Red: Excitement and danger. Did you know Red is the first color an infant can see, and the color's association with excitement is so hard-wired into our brains, looking at red can actually raise the blood pressure. But of course, warning signs and red flags also use this color, to draw attention to potential danger. That is why red and white are so popular as an advertising combination: the safe feeling of white counteracts the danger of red and leaves customers feeling excited but safe.

Orange: Fun, excitement, energy. As a blend of exciting red and happy yellow, orange can be the most appealing of colors, but it's a two-edged color: people either love orange or they hate it. To further complicate matters, different shades of orange seem to affect people in different ways. Calm colors include a creamy, pastel orange (like those orange ice cream bars) perceived as relaxing. A bright, hot orange is likely to wake up your potential customers. Orange has been proven to be the most easily visible of colors, which is why your car's dashboard lights up in orange. Choose orange carefully, but don't be afraid of it; this color can pack a punch.

Yellow: Optimism and alertness. Yellow means happy - think of the yellow-colored smiley-faces - and happy might be just the image you want for your company if you sell a toy or recreational item. Yellow can also make a mundane product - like those business telephone listing books - seem a little more fun. Yellow is especially attractive to the elderly, so keep it in mind if you're selling a product or service to the aging Baby Boomer population.

Green: Growth, nature, health. As noted, a small dose of green can symbolize your company's interest in "green," eco-friendly technology or practices. Green is a great family-values color, perfect if your company's product or service appeals to all ages or is something families can use together. Green and blue are most likely to attract male customers.

Blue: Peace, reliability, trust. From the blue of the sky to the blue of the ocean, people trust this color. It's the color-wheel opposite of orange, and perhaps not coincidentally, it's the most beloved of colors. All shades of blue convey trustworthiness. We are all attracted to blue, perhaps because our caveman ancestors spent so much time looking up at the sky. Blue is perfect for your business if you are selling calmness, rest, or peacefulness.

Purple: Modern sensibility and playfulness. Purple is the least traditional color, often associated with the counter-culture and cutting edge trends. Purple can make your company seem more modern and youthful. Purple is also a strong favorite among women, so if your customer base is largely female, you'll get extra points with this color.

Black: Power, wealth and mystery. If you sell to the very wealthy, black with the money colors -- gold or silver -- might be the right combination. Black is also extremely popular with young people, who are attracted to the mystique of this "non-color" color. Black can make a dramatic backdrop for other colors, making them seem brighter.

White: Purity and safety. If your product or service has to do with medicine or food, white might be the perfect choice. A white imprinted product as a promotional item says your business dealings are honest and your products themselves are clean and pure.

Color combinations that are color-wheel opposites - red/green, blue/orange, and yellow/purple - are the most visually stimulating. Because those color combinations use different parts of your eye's color-perception mechanism, color-wheel opposites can seem to "vibrate" against one another, adding further excitement to your imprinted product. Your company's logo in orange printed on a blue background -- on your logo keytags or other business gifts -- will really stand out. Take advantage of the "opposite" factor by getting gift items imprinted with light lettering on a dark background, or dark lettering on a light background.

Can't decide? If you're ordering multiple items, such as pens or logo keytags, to be given away at a trade show or at your front desk, order a variety of colors. That way, your customers will choose the items that most appeal to them, and they'll be more likely to keep on using them.