It has been a year since Tropicana’s branding redesign by parent company PepsiCo. In an attempt to “create an emotional attachment”, the company’s design failure resulted in a loss of customers, and they quickly reverted to their traditional look. But it was too late — sales dropped and Coca-Cola was there to pick up the market share with its Minute Maid brand.

Now, Coca-Cola is hoping to benefit even more from Tropicana’s failure, this time in lessons learned. Minute Maid launched its new look in the US in mid-November and will launch globally during 2010.

Based on extensive consumer research, the new visual identity was created to enhance brand preference, improve shelf stand out, drive cost efficiencies and create consistency across a world-leading family of juice brands and products.

The modernized design builds on elements of the Minute Maid visual identity, including the black rectangle and white logotype lettering while adding a green horizon mark, refreshing fruit photography and natural imagery to underscore the juice brands as a source of delicious fruit.

While I wasn’t able to find any sales numbers post-redesign, Tom Farrell, design director for the Coca-Cola global design group, told Brand Packaging that retailers and consumers are responding positively. I think this can be taken as a good sign given that Tropicana’s customers spoke out with their wallets immediately, causing the brand double-digit losses in just one month after the redesign.

Personally, I like the Minute Maid redesign and think the in-house designers did a thorough job of updating the brand while staying true to its roots — unlike Tropicana’s move to a more generic look with an awkward “orange” cap. What do you think: has Minute Maid won the juice rebranding war?