Tropicana gets Squeezed
The recent hubbub over the Tropicana packaging change shines a light on
several marketing myths. Take note so you don’t make the same mistakes with
your brand.
Tropicana brand background
of oranges, but looking for something to do with the smaller fruit that went to
waste they got into the frozen concentrate business. But that category was well
established and Tropicana was just another brand.
with being just another player in the concentrate category, the company pioneered
a flash pasteurization method that raised the temperature of the freshly
squeezed orange juice for a very short time, extending the juice’s shelf life
to three months while maintaining its flavor. Tropicana then dropped the frozen
concentrate product and focused entirely on the fresh, "not-from-concentrate"
product.
the mind with a great name and built a new category. Tropicana owns
not-from-concentrate in the mind and is the "real thing" in fresh orange juice.
With the success of Tropicana, eventually the majority of the market for orange
juice moved from frozen to fresh.
orange juice. Since the original entrepreneur sold the company in the 1970’s, there
have been several owners. Since 1998, PepsiCo has owned the brand.
packaging. Which was done after PepsiCo Chairman-CEO Indra Nooyi announced the
company would embark on a sweeping revamp of all its brands. To be changed: "every aspect
of the brand proposition: how they look, how they’re packaged, how they will be
merchandised on the shelves and how they connect with consumers."
totally redo all of its brands. The new Pepsi logo that is a little too close
to Obama’s logo hasn’t been very well received. And results for Tropicana have
been disastrous.
to consumer outrage and scrapped the Tropicana changes. The previous packaging will be
brought back and Arnell will finally be humbled (this part of course I doubt.)
Arnell that accompanied the new packaging look. The tagline is "Squeeze. It’s a
natural." Squeeze? That is not language that consumers would ever use.
Tropicana should have remained focused on fresh not from concentrate orange
juice.
values cleverness in advertising. Advertising campaigns that are clever and new
appeal to left-brainers. You see squeeze is used as a double-entendre in the
ads. The advertisement are filled with people hugging. Peter Arnell says the campaign is all about love. Love? The worst part is there is not an orange in sight in any of the ads.
How clever indeed! Reminds me of the Saturn ads with no cars.
relevant, familiar and consistent is what works best at reinforcing a brand in
the consumer’s mind.
Now that you know the background, let’s debunk some enduring marketing myths:
It is the product not the brand that consumers care about. Wrong.
Consumers care about brands. The brand is what gives the product
its authenticity and credibility. The brand includes everything from the name,
the look, the logo, the color and the package.
the brand in the mind. It no longer looks authentic. And worse, consumers think
you have also changed the contents.
original packaging," said the President of Tropicana. Consumers weren’t
attached to the packaging! Consumers are attached to the Tropicana brand. And
it didn't feel like their Tropicana brand when you changed the packaging. The
packaging is the visual
that signals the brand’s familiarity in the mind.
fact, Coca-Cola has been aggressively increasing its use of that bottle imagery on cans, cups,
and billboards to reinforce its brand. Good move.
The verbal is more powerful than the visual.
Both are necessary and should complement each other. One of the worst
things about the Tropicana redesign was the loss of the iconic orange and
straw. It was a powerful visual that reinforced the fresh, not-from-concentrate
idea in the mind. Instead they used the words “100% orange” on the containers.
Bad move. But typical of left-brain management that thinks verbally rather than
visually.
the mind.
Marlboro – Cowboys
KFC –Colonel Sanders
Pizza Hut – Red Roof
AT&T – globe
McDonald's – golden arches
should be wary of change.
(Of course, if nobody knows your
brand, you can change it as much as you want.)
Occasionally (like once a decade or two) brands may need some slight changes and updates. But only very infrequently and very
subtly. The changes should be ones that few people even notice.
And sometimes it is a good idea not to change at all. Jack Daniels is
proud of the fact it never changes. In fact, it is the theme of its
advertising. “Not subject to change, not now, not ever.”
If your brand is facing an uncertain future because of a declining
category, it might be better to launch a new brand. You can’t change a brand
radically in the mind anyway. Think Kodak.
Here are some classic logo changes that kept the brand’s authenticity but
made slight changes to keep the look current.
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