Over the years, consumers have come to associate the Tropicana brand with the plump orange with the red-and-white straw poked into it. Thus, most consumers who are familiar with Tropicana orange juice recognize the packaging on the left.
But in 2009, Tropicana attempted to re-design their packaging for a more “modern” look (pictures on the right) and launched it in stores.
It was a disaster.
Tropicana spent $35+ million to design and advertise their newly designed orange juice packaging.
Consumers got confused in stores when they were looking for Tropicana orange juice. Many thought the stores ran out or didn’t stock Tropicana or walked past the juice altogether.
Why? Because they were probably looking for that plump orange with the red-and-white straw.
Many customers who noticed the new design didn’t like it - their emotional bond to the original design, and thus the brand, was severed. Many criticized the new design openly on social media.
More bad news: this led to consumers flocking to competitors to buy their orange juice.
Tropicana sales quickly dropped by 20%, resulting in millions of dollars in lost revenues.
Tropicana renounced their new design and returned to the original packaging.
Overall, this marketing fiasco cost Tropicana a lot of time, $50+ million dollars, and diluted brand equity. Plus it helped boost the sales of their competitors.
All in 1 month.
For a fruit juice brand, this was a pretty expensive disaster.