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How did Tropicana lose $30M in a packaging redesign?

bootcamp.uxdesign.cc

61–70 of 278 posts

Re: How did Tropicana lose $30M in a packaging redesign?

#61

What seems to be lost in these “redesigns” is the why : why are you doing it? If there isn’t a list of benefits long enough to justify the cost and possible risk, well, that’s a problem. There’s also a tendency for companies to be super proud of what they’ve done so they neglect methods like A/B testing and instead just bet the farm on their great new design. After all, it cost a lot of money and looks cool to the de…

I suspect the "why" is most simply explained by "because designers had to justify their salaries."

In my experience, the "why" is more often called by a manager, director, or VP who wants a big project under their belt. The amount of times a "major design change" has happened from the bottom-up is very, very, almost impossibly rare in most cases. Sad story, but a true story.

Re: How did Tropicana lose $30M in a packaging redesign?

#62
post #28
post #26

I hadn't noticed the redesign (I don't buy OJ all that often). But looking at it - the sentence at the bottom of the article totally matches my impression of it being a discount store brand. > On the other hand, the new packaging failed to impress the consumers, with clean lines, a lack of visuals, transforming the once indistinguishable orange juice into a "generic store brand" product. It reminds me of the failed r…

Specifically, they threw away "Penney" which was, you know, the name of the company that everyone knew.

I figured rebranding Kentucky Fried Chicken to "KFC" would cost them the farm, but it doesn't seem to have hurt. The Penney's people probably felt they could get away with the same approach.

Re: How did Tropicana lose $30M in a packaging redesign?

#63

This is a little bit of a tangent, but I've always thought that it was funny that orange juice is overwhelmingly sold in liquid form, not as frozen concentrate. You can buy concentrate here in the US, but it's much less common (and, IME, fewer and fewer grocery stores stock it.) Given that most liquid orange just is just reconstituted concentrate anyways, buying the liquid form means paying for the shipping and space…

>Given that most liquid orange just is just reconstituted concentrate anyways, buying the liquid form means paying for the shipping and space cost of the water. You're incorrect. The "fresh" non-concentrated market is a lot bigger than the concentrate market in the US, at least. Has been since the 80's. It's more than a 10:1 ratio, actually.

[deleted]

Re: How did Tropicana lose $30M in a packaging redesign?

#64

IMHO the biggest visible difference to me (besides the "straw orange" trademark) is the original one has the brand Tropicana very clearly in the middle, while the redesign puts it in much-less-readable-at-a-glance vertical text on the side. To someone quickly scanning the shelves, the former stands out and immediately tells you it's Tropicana, while the latter would probably tell you only "100% orange" --- fine, it's…

Yes, this is in the eye tracking heatmap gif at the beginning of the article.

Re: How did Tropicana lose $30M in a packaging redesign?

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Buying frozen solid means cleaning up your mixer. I also bet it's easier to lose some fiber. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I've always just put the concentrate brick (cylinder?) into a pitcher, filled it up with the right amount of water, and mixed it until fully melted. It's no worse to clean up than anything else in a pitcher would be. I agree completely about fresh-squeezed juices, by the way. I do my own juices…

>he point was about American consumers, who are buying reconstituted concentrate anyways (just that someone's done the reconstituting for them They aren't. Over 90% of orange juice sold in the US is not from concentrate.

not from concentrate does not mean it isnt reconstituted. its just that instead of removing the water to preserve it they remove the oxygen. deaeration removes more flavor than dehydration, so they must be put back in. thats why tropicana tastes more like orange juice than orange juice

Re: How did Tropicana lose $30M in a packaging redesign?

#67
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is essentially the "No Name" brand in Canada. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Name_(brand)

Also, there is a generic-as-a-brand brand in Japan, “Muji”: https://www.muji.com/jp/ja/store

FWIW, the full name is 無印良品. Mujirushi ryouhin. 無(mu)印(jirushi)良(ryou)品(hin). Literally "no mark good goods".

Re: How did Tropicana lose $30M in a packaging redesign?

#68
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect the "why" is most simply explained by "because designers had to justify their salaries."

In my experience, the "why" is more often called by a manager, director, or VP who wants a big project under their belt. The amount of times a "major design change" has happened from the bottom-up is very, very, almost impossibly rare in most cases. Sad story, but a true story.

This is correct.

Management gets bored.

Source: Me, previously a Big Brand Marketing Manager

Re: How did Tropicana lose $30M in a packaging redesign?

#69

What seems to be lost in these “redesigns” is the why : why are you doing it? If there isn’t a list of benefits long enough to justify the cost and possible risk, well, that’s a problem. There’s also a tendency for companies to be super proud of what they’ve done so they neglect methods like A/B testing and instead just bet the farm on their great new design. After all, it cost a lot of money and looks cool to the de…

[deleted]

Re: How did Tropicana lose $30M in a packaging redesign?

#70
post #2

It is my theory, backed up by nothing but instinct and my own very fallible personal experience, that many customers simply did not “see“ the new design. That is, they would have preferred to buy Tropicana but assumed it had disappeared from the shelves.

Yeah. The article has all this stuff about emotional attachment, blah blah blah. Really, orange juice is kinda hit and miss, so I prefer to stick with a particular brand (Tropicana). The redesign is 1) totally unrecognizable 2) pretty generic looking It is literally just hard to spot next to the other juices.

I agree with all of this. Re#2 it’s even worse than pretty generic. It looks like a generic/unbranded OJ, and for some reason it looks like a low quality OJ to boot.

I’m guessing it’s a picture of their actual juice, but it looks very bland, especially compared to the bright ORANGE color of… an actual orange (or at least, of an over saturated orange).

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