Reinvent Your Brand, But Keep It Recognizable

We all want to grow and expand our brands, but a recent move by Tropicana reminds us why we need to make the shift slowly so we’re still recognizable to customers. Along with many others, I recently was perplexed by Tropicana’s new packaging.

A few weeks ago, I was heading to a friend’s house for brunch. I had been asked to pick up orange juice, and the host specifically requested Tropicana. I popped into my neighborhood grocery store and wandered to the OJ section, but I couldn’t find the Tropicana. After scanning the refrigerator shelves, I noticed a Tropicana bottle that said “100% orange pure & natural” and assumed it was a new organic version. I wondered if I should go to a different store to get the regular Tropicana OJ that the host requested, but I ended up buying it. When I arrived, the host was slightly disappointed that I got the special organic kind and not the tried and true kind, but we all drank it and liked it.

The next week while watching CNN, I saw a report on Tropicana and how their sales dropped significantly after they gave the orange juice carton a face lift. The Tropicana spokesperson was saying that they were switching back to the old design because customers complained that their grocery stores no longer carried Tropicana juice (which, of course, was not actually the case). I realized I hadn’t bought a new organic drink at all; I actually had bought the tried and true favorite but just didn’t recognize it.

Since then, I’ve seen several articles that mull over when to redesign a brand’s look and feel and how far to go. Most focus on the iconic orange with the straw sticking out, and people claim that customers would recognize a variation of a design that maintained those iconic images.

Today I came across an interesting new take on the situation. Khoi Vinh, the Design Director at the NYTimes.com, points out on his blog that usability is an important brand attribute as well. He compares the 15 old and new labels of the 15 different varieties of OJ (no pulp, some pulp, with calcium, etc). The old labels used different colors to represent each variety, while the new labels relied on the writing on the package.

Pepsi is a great example of a brand that has been able to reinvent its logo over and over to stay current while still staying recognizable. Many ommented about how the latest iteration resembles the Obama logo.

BNet recently made the case that the new Pepsi logo actually looks like the old Diet Pepsi logo, which means it has a great mix of old and new.

We all need to keep our brands and our websites fresh and exciting, but Tropicana’s experience is a good reminder to make sure we’re designing strategically.