Explanation/Reference:
Example:
To customize the theme's base colors to fit your brand, define your custom colors using theme attributes when you inherit from the material theme:
<resources>
<!-- inherit from the material theme -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Material">
<!-- Main theme colors -->
<!-- your app branding color for the app bar -->
<item name="android:colorPrimary">@color/primary</item>
<!-- darker variant for the status bar and contextual app bars -->
<item name="android:colorPrimaryDark">@color/primary_dark</item>
<!-- theme UI controls like checkboxes and text fields -->
<item name="android:colorAccent">@color/accent</item>
</style>
</resources>
Customizing the material theme. See figure below.

References:
http://developer.android.com/training/material/theme.html