Delicious orange juice, yes. Hideous design, absolutely. Pour me a Tropicana!!!
I am not an advocate of “re-branding” unless you are going to do it well, not simply clever. In these unstable times, messing with a classic and beloved icon is dicey, and perhaps even reckless. It makes me suspicious and paranoid, but that’s for another day.
If you are going to create a fresh look, start with your assets. Don’t put the brutally- stabbed-with-a-straw-orange icon straight into the trash. There are plenty of creative ways to “Martha-ize” pierced citrus. Just think about it.
The thing that I find most outrageous about the design is the bulbous orange cap. I don’t get any meaningful brand value from that cap. All I register is the piles of money needlessly spent on a silly gimmick, which could have easily gone toward buying some imaginative fonts.
The design is generic and the cap is just senseless. It is like putting a tiny hat on a nameless, faceless, 100% bland, mannequin. And tiny hats are generally quite funny, but the new design manages to suck the life out of a brand, as well as, a timeless gag.
Hat’s off to you Arnell Group!
Image from tropicana.com
Sam and I had a LOT of discussions about this update. She actually really liked it, but I hated it. I have a real problem with this new trend of vertical type that people are throwing on their products. I find it to be extremely jarring and not conducive to me instantly recognizing a brand name or logo. People don't read that way!
ReplyDeleteThen Sam explained to me why she liked it--she liked seeing the image of the juice. So I thought about that and somewhat understood what they were going for. Putting a big focus on the juice itself. You can't deny that it looks good--makes you thirsty! But they went about it in a horrible way. The juice is in the background and with all the text in completely arbitrary locations, the juice is a complete afterthought.
I think it's funny that you had a problem with the cap--that to me seemed to be the only innovative thing about the whole redesign. I think it's pretty clever that it's an orange (though, on the first few cartons we bought there was no orange, but now there actually is).
Anyway, my main gripe is the vertical text. I'm all for updating logos to "Web 2.0" and whatnot, but THAT has to go. Wasn't too surprised to find out that Tropicana is owned by PepsiCo, the original vertical text offenders.
Admittedly, the orange juice looks good. But there was a lot of brand equity in the red-striped straw that has been totally discarded. How about dipping that tired-old-icon into the super-sexy, new juice shot? Hmmm?
ReplyDeleteUltimately, I find the type treatment to be the most serious disappointment as well. The hierarchy is confusing, the vertical type is an eyesore, and the general, ubiquitousness nature of the whole thing makes me fall asleep. In that respect, I guess I will give you that the orange-ball at the top is at least a dose of imagination (albeit misguided in my opinion).
For what it's worth, I immediately loved the redesign. Every other orange juice company completely has ripped off Tropicana's original design, and I thought they got the last laugh with this awesome new packaging.
ReplyDeleteI had a problem with it the minute I saw it in the store because it took me too much time to find the particular type of Tropicana I wanted. (They may have too many choices, but that is another story.) Each type used to be easily distinguishable by a distinctive color bar - now you have to search for the words in orange on a glass of orange juice? Too easy to pick up the wrong one.
ReplyDeleteBut the main thing I want to say is that we were watching TV late last night, and there was a Tropicana commercial featuring the OLD carton design! Is that an ad company asleep on the job? If they are going to pay for a TV ad at all, shouldn't they be introducing us to their new design at all times? Isn't that like Advertising 101?
Ok, I have thought about this more and realize why I like it so much. It looks just like a store brand (Safeway's new redesign comes to mind, also the Target brand) logo, and I prefer to buy store brand because it is usually cheaper. Maybe this is what they are going for in these troubled economic times? If you already drink Tropicana you won't stop buying it just because of the logo change. If you don't drink Tropicana, you might get fooled if it looks like the higher-end store brand.
ReplyDeleteLauren, if that's the case, that's probably the most genius marketing ploy ever.
ReplyDeleteCheck out today's Newsweek. I didn't realize that in February, Tropicana announced it would revert to the old packaging...but that does explain why I now see both in the stores. And why the ad we saw the other night, with the old packaging. In the article, Arnell says, "I can't believe for the rest of my life I'm going to be known as Peter 'Tropicana' Arnell."
ReplyDeleteThey credit the blogosphere with the packaging reversal. Micki, we always knew you had influence!