The Juice Flop of 2009

When Pepsi re-branded its fleet of beverages at the start of this year, there were cries of both celebration and outrage. The G (Gatorade) campaign has been pretty well heralded by both consumers and industry folk alike for breathing life back into the product. The new face of Pepsi itself has met some mixed reviews, but for the most part has been welcomed.

The same could not be said for Tropicana orange juice. The rebrand of this product has received so much scorn and contempt that Pepsi is pulling the new designs and returning to a pre-update look.

The complaints have been legion “It looks like a store brand,” “it’s too euro,” “I don’t recognize my orange juice,” “It’s so generic,” etc...

To sum up people’s thought’s on the juice:



How did this happen? In an interview the NYtimes conducted with Neil Campbell, president of Tropicana North American, he revealed that $35million was sunk into the new packaging (and related ads). You know that this project got hella focus grouped. Potential consumers totally saw the new look before it launched and gave it the all clear.

Here’s where things get tricky. Those focus groups were most likely asked to report their feelings on the new packaging in a controlled setting –most likely a corporate meeting room or lecture hall. They probably were never shown a grocery store wall of OJ and asked their opinion. The problem Tropicana has is one that any web developer or game designer should have been able to point out early in the marketing process. The problem is THE INTERFACE.

Users (that is, folks who buy orange juice and prefer Tropicana) didn’t recognize their brand in the store. The logo changed and was given a very weak placement on the box —running longways up the side, away from all the colorful imagery that draws the eyes in the first place. The orange with a straw that had become a brand mark was absent. Even the color pallet had shifted; The average color of the new boxes is quite a bit lighter and brighter, highlighting the yellow tone of the actual juice instead of the reddish orange of the fruit’s skin.

These factors all contributed to a perfect storm of reduced functionality. Our standards of interaction with the brand at point of sale had so drastically changed that people literally couldn’t find the product when it was right in front of them.

So, next steps. Tropicana’s probably going to backpedal and release a new box that’s very similar to the one they were moving away from at the end of 2008. A box that by all accounts is rather boring and forgettable.

But perhaps not. This may be an opportunity for some exciting change but it will depend on what the brand takes away from this debacle. If they think that the problem was rooted in moving to far away from the tried and true and getting experimental, the best they can really hope for is to find themselves in the same place they were when they started.

BUT... If Tropicana realizes that it’s mistake was in the way the user interacts with the brand maybe they’ll start thinking of new ways to improve that interaction. If that’s the case (and it’s a big if) we might get lucky and see some interesting, next-level type of thinking in the refrigerator aisle. We’ve been buying groceries the same way for a long time, if one product or family of products was able to break that mold they would really set themselves apart from the competition.

This may not be the unforgettable fire of revolution, but you’re either thinking about the future or you’re totally irrelevant.