Since our office is in an orange grove, here’s a story that caught my eye. I read, with great amusement, a recent post on the Ad Age Blog about the Tropicana juice carton package design debacle. Here’s the top line: A big name, fancy-pants design firm creates a “fresh modern look” for an iconic brand that bombs with customers so badly that the marketer pulls it from store shelves immediately on its release.
Of course this isn’t the first time someone has tweaked packaging in the name of fresh and modern to disastrous result. What’s surprising is how often it does happen! I’m not going to rant on about design and stylistic failure here. Heaven knows I have had a couple of my own in my 30 years in this business. No, it is not about the new design of the Tropicana packaging that’s worthy of comment– it’s the arrogance behind it!
Just listen to this guy babble on about the virtues of the so-called good design they were doing for the brand. It’s right out of central casting. If I were writing a parody of classic designer arrogance this would be the benchmark.
Tropicana, although not a leading brand, had tremendous equity with its loyal customer tribe because of a simple iconic visual element on the packaging facing– the straw in the orange… can you say fresh with any more simplicity? To walk away from the brand’s main competitive advantage it’s customers believed so strongly in to embrace a generic run-of-the-mill package design is beyond me.
Here’s the good news: customers still determine your success in marketplace. To abandon them with a superficial change in the form of a “fresh and modern look” can kill decades of slow, methodical brand building. The customer’s voice was heard loud and clear just in the nick of time. This is another textbook example of a brand not being loyal to its customers–use it as a reference point, next time a fancy pants designer gets a hold of your brand.
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Good lord. Another Philistine Ad Goof, as we used to call these guys back in my agency days. Reminds me a lot of New Coke. Luckily, the clients came to their senses in time.
Why on earth would anyone buy into this prattle? Perhaps the next time this group forges ahead with obvious little regard to brand loyalty they won’t subject themselves to “taking the orange and putting it somewhere”.
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