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Red pill or blue?
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Red pill or blue?
Perhaps the most iconic scene from sci-fi thriller “The Matrix” comes when Neo is told to pick one of two pills: the blue would return him to the illusionary comforts of the dream world he’s always known, while the red would release him into the harsh but freeing real world.To get more news about red viagra pills, you can visit herbal-hall.com official website.
If Neo was a pharmaceutical marketer he may have appreciated just how much thought likely went into those color choices. In the U.S., blue is associated with peace and trustworthiness, red with action and stimulation. Both colors align with the effect of their respective pill.
In a pharma world, the commercial team behind Neo’s choice would have correctly identified their target customer.The industry has seen that color can help propel a tiny pill into a billion-dollar franchise. Those success stories have in turn nudged manufacturers and marketers to consider how color, whether in a logo, a campaign, or the drug itself, may best serve a patient’s needs and elicit the emotions brand developers want to connect to the product.
Straying outside the lines
The most famous blue pill isn’t found on the big screen, but rather at local pharmacies. Pfizer’s Viagra (sildenafil citrate), first approved in 1998 for erectile dysfunction, quickly achieved blockbuster status and held onto it through 2017. For many pharma marketers, it’s a preeminent example of color building a brand.AstraZeneca’s stomach medications Nexium (esomeprazole magnesium) and Prilosec (omeprazole magnesium) are also widely recognizable by their purple shades.
Despite how lucrative these drugs became, some marketers have found that color doesn’t come up in many client conversations, but some are trying to change that.
Jeanne Ryan, principal at life sciences advertising firm ZS, said this has been especially true when the point-person for a new drug isn’t in a commercialization role.
In one instance, Ryan noted a client with a clinical asset who was looking into color options. The agency researched patient and pharmacist preferences, potential storage and handling issues, and regulatory and manufacturing requirements before offering a color recommendation, but the client ended up keeping to white.
“One of the stated reasons why they stuck with white was that it wasn’t their job to commercialize this drug, it wasn’t their job to decide how to position it,” she told BioPharma Dive. “They literally said they didn’t want to take away any of the degrees of freedom from the ultimate brand team that would be responsible for those things.”