Color psychology in branding has been used for a long time to significantly impact the customers. Even the pharmaceutical industry uses colour psychology in marketingnbecause certain colours are known to make a dramatic impact on the moods, reactions, and emotions of people. Specific colors are known to increase blood pressure, enhance metabolism and cause strain on the eyes. Let us see more about colour psychology meaning and its role in the pharmaceutical industry in the next sections.
What is colour psychology?
Colour psychology is defined as the production of a colour that is personal and related to one’s own experience or culture. Considering the example of white colour, it symbolises innocence and purity in Western countries, but Eastern countries see it as mourning.
Colour psychology theory and the pharmaceutical industry:
The pharmaceutical industry follows an extensive set of guidelines when it comes to colour coding medicines. Concerned authorities provide these guidelines for tracking drug counterfeiting and the use of harmful colours. Green, white, blue, red, and brown are the popularly used colours in the pharmaceutical industry. Colour measurement in this sector is crucial as various considerations are needed for formulating the colours.
These are often natural colours or made up of synthetic substances.
As we have seen earlier that colour has a psychological impact on humans, specific colors cause quick healing in patients. For example, research shows that if a person suffering from depression is provided with a maroon colour antidepressant tablet, he won’t like it because the efficiency of the drug will be less. Similarly, patients perceive capsules of soft blue colour as blue colour psychology results in a better night’s sleep. When there is acid reflux, people would be reluctant to have a tablet of lime green as this is often linked with the sour taste of citric acid. All these show the importance of the colour of a drug concerning the medication’s intended result.
In some pediatric drugs, the combination of colour and flavor is used to make its intake easy. This indicates how colour is naturally connected with flavour. Colours help patients to easily distinguish between prescription and non-prescription drugs. It is a kind of identification for a brand too.
Besides this, consistency is introduced in pharmaceutical dye application through colour measurement and control. Guidelines are rolled out by authorities like FDA for preventing drug counterfeiting through a specific size, shape, and colour of the drug. The license for drug production gets cancelled when the producers fail to adhere to the
rules.
Chromotherapy used by health practitioners :
It is not only the colour of the medications that have a significant impact on the healing process of a patient but the application of specific colours or lights to certain points in the body, which is referred to as “chakras”. For example, there is an increase in breathing rate, blood pressure, and pulse rate by a red light which makes it ideal for treating circulatory problems by using the red colour psychology.
When a patient needs to be calm and relaxed, blue color is used, which heals pain, cramps, headaches, and other similar issues.
Conclusion:
Colour is more influential than it seems to be. The physiological and psychological effect of colour psychology in design makes it ideal to be integrated into the healthcare system. Research indicates that the health of a person is affected by the level of stress and happiness. Specific colors are known to encourage happiness and calmness,
resulting in an improvement in the health of a patient. This makes it essential to follow the colour psychology guide for the healthcare sector. It is also the reason the pharmaceutical industry put efforts into using colour psychology in logo design to attract the target customers easily.
