Package Design Mistakes: Lessons to Learn from Tropicana's $55 Million Rebrand Failure
Remember when Tropicana revamped their packaging and the customers hated it? To make a long story short the company spent $35 million in marketing only to lose $20 million in sales within a month of rebranding! Less than 30 days after the launch, they pulled back the new packages from the shelves and went back to the old packaging. Let’s decode some of the most obvious packaging mistakes from Tropicana’s rebranding disaster and the lessons we can learn from it.
Beautiful design also needs to be functional.
The design flaws in the packaging are quite easy to spot. From a clearly visible, distinctive, easy to read horizontal logo, after the rebrand the new logo appeared in a thin font on the very side of the packaging, was in the same colour as the rest of the package text and worst of all was placed vertically which would entail tilting one’s head to read it! Another feature in the old packaging was the centrally positioned block of colour indicating the type of juice in the carton, the new packaging had a thin strip of colour indicating the type of juice at the very top, which required greater concentration from the shoppers to pick out what they needed.
Design should resonate with the audience.
Purchase decisions of consumers are highly emotional and they need to identify with a product or company to purchase from them. Tropicana spent a lot of resources rebranding itself inside hip design houses instead of spending time with its customers and taking into account their opinion or preferences. The result was an esoteric, modern and rather bland brand design which the average American could not relate to.
Packaging is the final salesman of your brand.
Packaging is the last point of brand communication for a company with its consumers in the purchasing decision process. It’s design and content have the power to influence a consumer to invest in a product at the very last moment. Tropicana’s consumers hated the new packaging. They could not see the iconic and familiar orange with a straw on the carton as it was replaced with a glass of syrupy looking juice in a glass, which gave an unnatural impression.
Don’t overthink design. Keep it simple.
The original packaging clearly stated “no-pulp” almost like a warning on the box while the new packaging did not emphasise this crucial bit of info. Communicating the right information to your audience in a way that is simple and easy for them to understand should be the most important objective of a brand design. Most consumers prefer practicality and simplicity as compared to abstract concepts and messages alluding to emotions.
Don’t try to fit in when you stand out.
Packaging should differentiate your brand of product from other brands with similar products. Through the company logo, typography, visuals and colours the customer should be able to tell your product apart as it sits among several other competing products on a store shelf. Tropicana’s original packaging had rich colours, a visual hierarchy and an overall ‘premium’ feel to it. The new package design with clean lines and lack of visuals failed to impress the consumers. It looked washed out, generic and undistinguishable and it now made Tropicana look like a discounted store brand.
Packaging design is very different from advertising.
Packaging design has different communication criteria when compared to advertising. While with advertising companies have a longer term approach to inform and communicate values, emotions to the audience, packaging communication needs to be clear, direct and on point as the consumer is about to make his final purchase decision then.
Bottomline:
The Tropicana rebranding disaster shows the power of packaging. While this case study shows the negative impact that poor packaging had on Tropicana’s sales, good packaging can have the opposite impact and can drive sales in a positive direction. This is why companies and brand designers should give due weightage to packaging and should prioritise this brand asset to help delight, engage and convert their audience.
