Tropicana Old Is New

This week The New York Times reported after much public disapproval, Tropicana decided to revert its packaging back to the old design. In my opinion Tropicana is at a crossroads that has implications for their business.

First the change in packaging suggest a change in culture at the company.  Tropicana did not need to redesign its packaging. It is a market leader in premium OJ.  What the rebranding suggest is that the company felt that they have lost touch with customers or were out of step with market conditions.

The real value of the rebrand (which led them back to their original packaging) was a need to help customers categorize their brand (is it cheap or expensive?) Ultimately people felt that the repackaging cheapened the brand, losing trust amongst loyal consumers.  What probably happened is that they saw a lost in sales coupled with ample evidence of disapproval on the blogshere.  What the new design succeeding in doing was confusing peoples’ perception of the brand (premium) and the reality of the packaging (cheap).

The real blow to Tropicana is the impact on their corporate culture.  They made a decision to reposition the brand as being value driven when in fact they were previously well esteemed.  The questions for Tropicana to answer now is who are they given this turn of events and what will they stand for moving forward? Do they continue to let customer define the brand or do they lead with their own vision for the brand?