In 2009, Tropicana orange juice changed its branding from an orange with a straw in it to a glass of juice.
The result?
Sales declined by $33 million in a month, and the panicked team is reverting to the redesign soon.
A new study published in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services sought to determine when a company should execute a packaging redesign.
The answer?
Avoid redesigning a package unless it’s absolutely necessary and people actively despise your existing packaging.
Even then, companies should try to keep some of the previous design in the new one.
In other words, unless it sucks, don’t kill brand loyalty in an attempt to find greater loyalty by rebranding.
It’s amusing to watch the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services conduct a study that determined something that has been said and known since at least the sixteenth century:
“Leave well enough alone.”
Or, in the words of Bert Lance, who said it in 1977 while serving as director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget under Jimmy Carter, to argue against unnecessary government changes:
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
