I was shopping at my local Meijer sometime back, when I noticed that Tropicana Orange Juice was sporting some new packaging. I’ll admit it – I even liked the new, modern design. Fast-forward a few weeks, I’ve been reading some design and branding blogs, and it seems the hard-core Tropicana fans are not loving the new look.
Here are some interesting reads on the subject:
Tropicana Squeezes Out Fresh Design with a Peel
Tropicana Discovers Some Buyers Are Passionate About Packaging
Pepsi Takes the Tropic Out of Tropicana
Perhaps it’s because I wasn’t married to the original design that I find this all a little crazy. Tropicana says they wanted to generate attention for the brand, though I don’t think this is what they had in mind. Clearly, their consumers are comfortable with consistency. I find this snippet from Tropicana’s President particularly interesting:
It was about refreshing and modernizing,” said Tropicana president Neil Campbell. “The entire orange juice category has been in decline for some time. We wanted to create an emotional attachment by ‘heroing’ the juice and trumpeting the natural fruit goodness.”
Emotional attachment indeed. What are your thoughts?
I’m really surprised that the emotional attachment to the original look didn’t come out in the test stages of the new design. The reactions really speak not only to power of a brand, but also the power that social media now plays in shaping design decisions. Consumers have more ways of voicing their opinions to large audiences…don’t like your phone company? Tweet about it and it’ll show up in keyword searches. Love your new tech toy? Upload a photo on Flickr, blog about it, and add the link to Facebook. I think this is something that more and more companies are starting to realize.
Lindsey LaTour reply on April 13th, 2009:
I’d like to add that the most annoying part of the new design might actually be the orange-shaped cap. I recently purchased some Tropicana orange juice in the new packaging and really didn’t like the cap. It’s cute and kitschy, but the grip was weird. Designers cannot ignore the tactile nature of their designs, especially when creating consumer products!
Also, here is another good read, from Logic+Emotion: Re-Thinking The Focus Group: Tropicana Design Flops.
Lindsey LaTour reply on February 25th, 2009:
Thanks for that link!
Lindsey LaTour reply on March 2nd, 2009:
Another from PRSA http://tinyurl.com/av9dsy