Generic packaging is generic, mkay?
29.10.2008 @ 3:09pm
filed under: Design
Once upon a time – long ago and in a world far, far away – I worked in marketing for what is now known as The Minute Maid Company and what was then known as Coca-Cola Foods. Most peope’s first response when I told them where I worked was “I didn’t know Coca-Cola made food...” which meant I’d have to explain that they didn’t, really. It was juices and juice drinks. I spent a lot of my time there (almost five years) working on the orange juice products and thus talking/thinking about what Tropicana, our major compeition, was doing.
So when I stumbled upon a post in Brand New about the new Tropicana packaging, I had to stop and read it. I saw the photo and thought, ‘Dear God, what the hell were they thinking in Bradenton when they approved that design?’
Gone is the iconic straw in an orange. In it’s place is a brand-defining ... glass of orange juice. It’s a commodity product and they’ve chosen to use a generic category image. Tropicana Orange Juice in a glass looks remarkably like Minute Maid Orange Juice in a glass which looks remarkably like Store Brand Orange Juice in a glass. I don’t see how you could get much more generic than a photo of a gigantic glass of orange juice. Can somebody please cut and plaste the definition of the word ‘generic’ and send it over to the Tropicana marketing team? Because I don’t think they know what ‘generic’ it, despite the fact that it’s staring them right in the face.
The actual logo is now shoved to the far right edge of the package and rotated 90 degrees. Oooh. How hip. How now. How horribly recessive – it’s like the brand is an after thought. Plus it’s extraordinarily difficult to tell which variety of orange juice it is. Yes, it’s Tropicana. I can kind of get that. But which one is the Calcium? The Pulp Free? The only distinguisher amongst the varieties is the colour strip at that top of the packaging. It might work OK if the cartons are in the well of the refrigerator section, but it could be difficult to see if it’s on a shelf. But they thought about that right? They tested it? With people? And shelves?
While I’m railing on here, I might as well comment about what they’re calling the ‘regular’ version now. You’ve got your ‘Pulp Free’, your ‘High Pulp’ and in the middle .... your ‘Some Pulp’. Its simplicity is somewhat refreshing, but combined with the lackluster, generic packaging it just adds to the ‘ho-hum’ nature of the whole offer.
Tropicana doesn’t look like Tropicana any more. Sadly, it doesn’t look like much of anything.