Resumo

When it comes to sanitarian products it is known by the companies that produce them that the costs are usually already reduced: the formulas are usually composed mostly of water, followed by the other components that will provide the promised benefits on the label. So in the face of so many products in the gondola, which mostly competes in functionality and has the reduced cost, what would be the strategy to attract the eyes of the consumer so that one of these becomes unique and is chosen in the purchase?

The objective of this research is to map and understand which colors are most used in the Brazilian health market according to the product category, in order to understand the characteristics of this market, how colors are positioned and correlate, as well as their meanings, being a study of support and relevance to researchers and professionals in the segment.

The product packing then becomes the business card connecting the merchandise to the buyer, becoming the silent seller. And in the packaging, color is the aspect that first reaches the buyer's eye (Farina et al., 2011). It was detected (Csillag, 2015) that the choice of colors in products is often performed by intuition, personal taste of professionals, or copy of what already "works",' but this should be based and supported by objective criteria, given its importance in the process of choice and purchase.

The research was carried out through two stages, using qualitative and quantitative methodologies, using primary data (from a face-to-face market study conducted in several points of sale in Brazil from Oct. 2019 to Mar. 2020) and secondary (through the use of tools and online platforms that enable visual access to products for sale in Brazilian retail over the years). For the research of secondary data, the sanitist products launched and marketed in the last three years (2017 to Mar. 2020) were considered.

To discuss the possible meanings of colors by category, three colors per product were selected, always evaluating those with the highest presence in the evaluated product. With regard to materials and packaging presentation, it was also important to know specific laws of certain categories, as well as inherent needs of some products. The sanitary water category, for example, has technical and regulatory requirements in its formulation that make it impossible to use certain materials in its formulation and defines mandatory packaging and marketing characteristics, making this category much lowe

After analysis of the market products, it was concluded that in general there is a predominance of the blue color in the cleaning products (representing 30% of the products analyzed in the period), which is elected the "color of cleaning"' in the present study. In the case of packaging materials, HDPE Plastic represented more than 45% of the use in the category and 44% of the packages were transparent, and then almost half of the products represented by the colors of the formulations.

Crepaldi, L. 2006. The influence of colors on purchasing decision: a study of consumer behavior in são Paulo's ABC. Intercom - Brazilian Society of Interdisciplinary Communication Studies. São Paulo, SP, Brazil. Available in: . Access: 14 Mar. 2020. Csillag, P. 2015. Color communication: a scientific approach by visual perception. 1ed. SENAI-SP Editora / ESPM, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. Farina, M.; Perez, C.; Bastos, D. 2011. Psychodynamics of colors in communication. 6ed. Editora Edgard Blucher Ltda, São Paulo,