Morrisons Clinic packaging

The healthcare space has undergone significant evolution over the last 5 years. Traditional retailers and manufacturers are increasingly being challenged by new players who are bringing a new visual vocabulary to the category inspired by lifestyle and wellness brands. This evolution of the visual language is increasingly necessitating change to pharma’s traditional ‘hard science’ signifiers such as predominantly white packs and retail environments, complex chemical and molecular language, and cues of top-down authority. But as the spaces of pharmaceuticals and wellness move aesthetically closer, this also raises questions of trust. Do new products offer the same benefits as those from established manufacturers? Does the established retailer have the most up to date treatments? How can I trust the efficacy of this new brand or product?

In many ways trust is the defining currency of the healthcare, pharmaceutical, and  functional wellness categories. Poor visual or verbal choices can actively increase the levels of risk perceived by consumers, meaning that design needs to be approached thoughtfully if brands are to evolve while avoiding reputational risk. Cultural insight is a key tool to help manage this challenge for brands looking to build credibility across their offering.

The importance of medical products, producers, and retailers communicating trust has never been more pressing, so what are growing the codes of trust in healthcare?

Rivopharm generic pharmaceuticals

Traditionally, medical brands have used predominantly white packaging, with highlights of complex tertiary colours, ‘tones between tones’ like teal, magenta, cyan, or burnt orange. These colours are frequently associated with carefully blended products like coffee, whisky, and chocolate communicating advanced sophistication and careful makership vs. more ‘simple’ primary colours (red, blue, yellow) associated with fast-food and approachable value (e.g. a McDonalds Happy Meal).

McDonalds and Sonic fast-food imagery

Tertiary colours remain important within the category, but what we are increasingly seeing is a change in their treatment. Where they once were highlights, or treated with fades and effects, tertiary colours are now being employed in bold blocks, washed all over packs, from which other details are often removed. This focus on colour to lead messaging communicates a sense of confidence, from bold brands that don’t need to overexplain to justify their offering.
  Juniper and Habi packaging

This is a clear example of an aesthetic taken from the lifestyle space and used by personal care brands like Byoma and Daise now entering into healthcare.

Daise and Byoma packaging

One interesting nuance in the role of colour in the category is the distinctive black and white livery employed by numan. This distinctive monochrome livery creates a bold look that helps to unify the brand across their various offerings. It also communicates a sense of clarity and certainty, subtly framing the healthcare options they offer as ‘black and white’ solutions, with no ‘grey areas’ in treatment.

numan website and Hims packaging

In a number of cases, these bold approaches to colour are paired with prominent logos using serif typography, such as those for Hims and Juniper. Serif type has long been a signifier of traditional authority, carving a sense of permanence and trust on everything from roman columns and government buildings to newspaper headlines. This sense of authority is an important way of reinforcing credibility, particularly in growing sectors of health and wellbeing that have previously been associated with dubious ‘miracle cures’ and ‘snake oil’ products such as hair loss, and sexual health.

Across the pharma space, brands frequently support their credibility by referring to validation by external parties/bodies. Language like “approved” and “proven” communicate a sense of scientifically verified efficacy, while to the point language, e.g. “lowers the risk of…” suggests a clear and verifiable benefit.

Mounjaro and Ozempic websites

These established approaches are further supported by the increasing number of brands and services offering apps and clear data tracking to deliver a sense of continuing incremental progress. Clear data, the ability to establish goals, and even the use of celebratory notifications build a positive narrative of participation and personal agency, not reliance on an externally provided ‘wonder cure’.

Hims and Morrisons Clinic websites

The patient experience has long been communicated through somewhat cliched imagery of supposed patients sometimes overtly highlighting that these are “actor portrayals”, which while honest calls in to question the accuracy of the positive outcomes shown. Increasingly, the use of actors and paid spokespeople is being replaced by personal testimonials and “verified reviews” employing less polished photography more casual language and storytelling, and before and after shots. 

These direct testimonials also feature more emotive terms, with observations that treatment has “given me my confidence back”, and “I am proud to show other people about it”. This is reflective of a general culture in which patients are increasingly opening up about the medical challenges that they face.

Great Company with Jamie Laing

This sense of action and celebratory positivity, more closely mirrors the language found in consumer conversation. This helps brand to build trust by literally ‘speaking the same language’ as the patients, communicating familiarity and relatability to consumers.

“I love this!! Idk why I am so afraid to tell people. I wish I could be better and be more honest, every time I lie about it I just feel terrible 😭 definitely trying to be more like you and being honest about it! there really should be no shame or stigma, you’re exactly right! it’s a treatable condition and we’re treating it!” – Reddit User

This kind of emotive language is being further supported by brands who are making more use of verbs and an active voice, e.g. “let’s get started”, “keep going!”. This is a clear departure from the established formal, dispassionate and ‘top down’ tone of voice conventionally used in medical categories, and moves away from a sense of authority to instead frame these brands and products as supportive peers and ‘hype men’/‘hype girls’ on the treatment journey. This approach builds trust not just through credibility, but through relatability – products and services you can trust because they share your experiences, perspective and aims.

3 Key Takeaways for Brands

  • Healthcare brands can increasingly embrace bolder use of colour, and more minimalist design overall inspired by lifestyle brands, to communicate a sense of understated confidence.

  • Apps and tracking services help to communicate consumer empowerment and build trust by displaying believable incremental progress.

  • A more emotive, and action oriented tone of voice, can be helpful to build relatability, and the sense that you are talking to a trusted and supportive peer, not a distant authority.

Mark Lemon, Director

Trust Signals: The evolving codes of credibility in healthcare