Don't Mess With My Tutu

A month or so ago when I went to buy orange juice, I noticed that my familiar No Pulp Tropicana juice was missing - but it wasn't. Pepsico changed the packaging and it took me a while to reconcile the new generic looking carton with my familiar "orange with a straw" picture. I still bought the juice, but I did spend time wondering, "Why the new design?" I didn't even realize that the new image was of a glass of juice!

Well, apparently, Tropicana loyalists have spoken and they don't like the new packaging. Pepsico is going back to the familiar brand image. Remember New Coke? These incidents remind companies that their CUSTOMERS determine what they do. I recently took a real estate class, and one of the questions was, "Ultimately, at the end of the day, who determines the selling price for a house?" The answer: the public. You can ask for whatever you want, but the buyer who ultimately purchases is the one who determines whether or not to spend the money. This is truly the general rule.

There are companies that have changed their brand images successfully. Some have done dramatic overhauls (like Stevens Institute of Technology changing the mascot from friendly duck to a more fierce duck) and some have made subtle changes that have been significant (look how slim and youthful Aunt Jemima has become). The public happily accepted the changes and, in some cases, the companies have gained market share since their brand may now appeal to a new market segment.

It is a hard decision to make a brand change, and the key to some success is research, research, RESEARCH. For all the brand changes that have gone wrong it makes you wonder, "Who did they survey? Did they manage to get that 1 out of 4 doctors who didn't recommend?"