In the past six years, the pharmaceutical industry has sought to show itself to the world more than ever before. The COVID-19 pandemic brought these companies into the spotlight and, rather than shy away, many Big Pharmas decided to grab the mic and talk up their companies.
Coupled with that was a growing trend in which companies reinvigorated their public-facing brands. This included multi-million-dollar rebranding efforts incorporating new logos, reimagined content, websites and refreshed corporate outlooks, with some even adopting new names.
Novartis ranked among those making changes and, back in 2023, created a new color design for its corporate backgrounds.
But the Swiss pharma stopped short of radical rebranding that swept through the likes of GSK, Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, as the industry sought to jump on its reputation boost during the pandemic and be more like its tech industry cousin in talking itself up.
Now, to help celebrate its 30th anniversary, Novartis is tapping the colors, culture and successes of its past to help create a brand evolution that guides its future.
Modern-day Novartis traces its roots back to July 1996 when the company was created through the merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz.
The company also boasts a deeper heritage stretching back 250 years to a chemical, dyes and materials company in Basel, Switzerland, where the pharma still calls home. That history in dyes has also helped shape today’s color palette.
“I think it's less of a big bang than some of the other [pharma] companies that have been doing these like big unveilings of a new brand,” said Michelle Weese, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Novartis, in an interview with Fierce Pharma Marketing.
“For us, it's really a visit to our history and our heritage. None of it is new. We’re just reconnecting, I think, in some ways, with what's always been at the heart of us.”
As part of the branding, Novartis “revisited the color palette” of old, focused on tones of orange. “We saw that there was a lot of warmth and energy in that era, and so we just decided to highlight that to be able to bring forward more of the emotion that comes with what we do for a living,” Weese said.
And for Novartis, that is creating new medicines, extending lives and managing health. More and more, Big Pharma is looking to espouse this messaging: That its impact on human health and biology is its defining feature.
Weese said Novartis has, as part of this process, “gone back through our archives”—something that has “given us the ability to just look back in history, pick moments that were really meaningful and allow us to celebrate them.”
She said the unique factor here is that Novartis “is really leaning into our brands, leaning into the accomplishments, and bridging that with the technology of the future to bring more hope to patients.
“What I would say is [Novartis’ refreshed branding] is different than the other brands because it has real stories behind it.”