Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Marketing Misfire.

Tropicana recently changed their packaging. The new package was loved almost as much as New Coke. The major complaint was it was too generic looking. Others felt it was ugly or stupid looking. Tropicana's president Neil Campbell was quoted as saying:

"We underestimated the deep emotional bond. What we didn't get was the passion this very loyal small group of consumers have."

They are trying to justify the money they spent on the new packaging, or they simply don't have a clue. Do you want to know what I think caused the failure of this package? (Too bad wise guy. I'm going to tell it anyway.) As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Check this out.


Now pick out your favorite juice. Do like juice with pulp, no pulp, calcium, low acid or something else? The packaging is too similar. The only way to tell them apart is the small bar on top of the carton. Stocking it was hard enough before, but this new package made it harder. You want your customer to be able to find what they are looking for easily. People don't mind when you change a package, but they don't want to have to study it to make sure they are getting the right thing. In justifying the change they said it was because of a very loyal small group of consumers. I have seen estimates that their business was off 20% after the change. Why not just admit they goofed and be done with it? Who do they think they are, politicians?



The Cubs opened their season beating the Astros 4-2 last night. (Sorry, Quiggy. Ok. Not really.)
Kevin Gregg, the new closer pitched the ninth. His performance reminded me of both Lee Smith and Mitch Williams. It seems like they can't do the job without putting someone on base. The first two batters Gregg faced got hits and one scored before he ended the inning.

Dana asked me yesterday about the White Sox. I have heard there was a second team in Chicago, but I thought that was an urban myth. Seriously, I grew up in central Illinois where people mainly followed either the Cubs or the Cardinals. There were a few White Sox fans there, but not many. I have always been more of a National League fan than the American League. I have nothing against the league other than the designated hitter. I would like to see that abolished.
Dagwan and Travis were both right. Georgia borders the Atlantic Ocean.
Today's question is Grade 4/World History.

The ancient kingdoms of Kush and Axum were in which continent?

  • A) Africa
  • B) Australia
  • C) Europe
I guessed on this one. It was a good guess. 67-15.

5 comments:

Quiggy said...

I knew this one, because I am a history buff, and somewhat of an amateur Biblical scholar, although I usually see "Kush" spelled "Cush", not that it matters. The name stems from one of the sons of Ham, son of Noah. Anyway, the answer is Africa.

And we'll see if the Astros can snag pull off at least one victory in this series.

sdifugydfkjbhcvjk said...

That was the worst packaging change I've ever seen. It now takes me a full minute to select a carton so that I don't accidentally get some weird OJ variation.

Today's Word Verification word is:

dendempo- southern slang expression indicating that someone else has recently lost all of their money.

-Dagwan

Dana said...

You know, I actually thought the new Tropicana packaging was "generic" OJ! In fact, I just walked right by it at our market looking for the name brand. Sometimes change really is bad ...

Lumbering Jack said...

I picked Africa too.

And man, that sure does make picking out your OJ hard.

Of course, I always had a hard time with that thanks to the wide variety of categories. At the very least, you have to give Tropicana credit for its variety.

Volly said...

Tropicana's always been my favorite brand of orange juice, so I'm not likely to switch. But the packaging looks so much like the crappy store-brand carton. I appreciate your posting this, so I won't go nuts searching the whole store for Trop.