What's in a Color? | Horizon BioInsights

I was once asked by our Tech ops group "What color should our Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) pill be?". Hmm...a question I had not encountered before. How do companies decide? What impact might it have? Did it really matter that much?

There are certainly a lot of examples where a brand has been associated with a particular pill color or shape - probably the most notable example is the 'purple pill' where the pill's color was the main focus of AstraZeneca's marketing campaign for Nexium (esomeprazole). The proton pump inhibitor (PPI) market was pretty crowded when Nexium came to market. By focusing on its color AstraZenaca created a very different kind of differentiation. Consumers were trained to 'Ask for the purple pill'.

So what was my response? Well first off there are a few factors that play in to the significance of pill color. Unlike Nexium our product was unlikely to ever become an OTC product. It was for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a disease in which patients experience a lot of pain and discomfort. IBD patients have limited options and want a tolerable therapy that works for them and are not going to be swayed by a marketing campaign on pill color.

That being said there is plenty of research on how colors relate to patient's moods and feelings. Research suggests that colors on the red-orange-yellow end of the spectrum are "stimulating" and colors on the blue-green side of the spectrum are "cool and soothing". Our product was clearly aiming for a soothing action and so would fit on the blue-green end of the spectrum evoking feelings of calm and serenity.

So thats the direction we ended up going in. I chose 4 variations of tablet colors on the blue-green spectrum and the team voted for its favorite. We landed on a pale blue tablet.