Does your brand need an extreme makeover? Not necessarily—Just ask the folks at Tropicana Orange Juice.
After deciding that the look they’d been using for years was past the expiration date, in January they launched redesigned cartons. The look was so fresh that Tropicana’s loyal customers didn’t even recognize it. They thought it was a store brand and passed it by. The orange juice giant had never been so squeezed. After a 20% sales drop in one month, the executives at Tropicana decided to take a fresh look at the old logo and scrapped the redesign altogether.
What can we learn from this? Be careful when you mess with success. Remember New Coke? In 1985 Coke switched to a new formula to win the cola war with Pepsi. Instead of fizzing up sales, the switch fell flat with Coke fans and after just 79 days on the market, the idea was canned for good.
That’s not to say you should never change with the times. Aunt Jemima is good example. The well known brand was simply out of step. But rather than do a complete image overhaul, they gave the maple syrup lady an updated look and sales have never been sweeter.
