Next time a client says design doesn’t matter, share this with them: Tropicana Line’s Sales Plunge 20% Post-Rebranding (Ad Age).

Filed under: Design

8 Responses to “Design Matters”

1. 
   Dan said on 6 April 2009 at 1:56 pm:

   Perhaps, in these tough times, people are choosing supermarket own-brand juice instead of the usually more expensive Tropicana.

   I know I am.

2. 
   Greg Bulmash said on 6 April 2009 at 2:45 pm:

   They made the design look very generic. My first impression was that the new design was a Safeway store brand, not a premium. The design is just terrible because it takes all the Tropicana personality and makes it the packaging sterile and unimaginative. It also demotes the brand name from the prominence it once had.

   This is like a lesson in how not to do brand packaging.

   [rant] But what makes me most unhappy is that the executives who signed off on this and cost the company tens of millions in lost sales will probably still get their “retention” bonuses just like the guys who broke the banking system.[/rant]

3. 
   Jeffrey Zeldman said on 6 April 2009 at 3:14 pm:

   And the designers who designed it under protest will lose their jobs.

   My friend Tim’s theory is that Tropicana saw the recession coming, feared that being perceived as a “premium brand” would hurt sales to financially pinched shoppers, and directed their design team to come up with a more generic look so that Tropicana might be perceived as a “house” brand with “value.”

   And what may have happened from there is that consumers who were looking for Tropicana didn’t even see it (because they didn’t recognize it).

4. 
   Mike said on 6 April 2009 at 3:53 pm:

   You have to feel bad for the designers, probably just doing what they were told…

5. 
   Mark said on 6 April 2009 at 4:03 pm:

   Interesting that no one seems to have mentioned the concurrent change from 64 oz. packaging to 59 oz. For the same price. That is what got my goat.

6. Failed Rebranding said on 7 April 2009 at 5:16 pm:

   [...] EDIT: Zeldman makes a good case too about how this is proof design matters. [...]