The Brand Man Speaks

Pepsico's Tropicana Orange Juice to drop new flawed packaging design

According to the New York Times, The Brand Man Speaks was right: The new generic brand diluting packaging for Tropicana Orange Juice is killing the brand and therefore will be changed very soon.

Although sales damage information was not released, one could surmise that consumer dislike for the new look....which was expressed all over the internet was also sufficiently obvious in supermarkets around the US that Pepsico took the unusual but smart step to announce it would be discontinued and replaced without too much delay.

I am amazed when I see branding missteps as major as this one given the amount of marketing talent around the US these days. This was an obvious one to marketers I talked to but the question was would Pepsico cut their losses quickly or try like New Coke to hang on and hope for consumer acceptance. In this recession economy it is too costly to sit and wait....losing marketing share for a major brand when consumers are already turning to REAL generics in droves is a kiss of death today.

Let's acknowledge Pepsico for seeing the error in their ways quickly and doing something about it. Let's also suggest that Pepsico replace the brand management of Tropicana from the vast pool of brand talent that might be unemployed and ready to do a much better job of steering the brand in the future.

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli

Tropicana Orange Juice dilutes brand with new generic packaging

Pepsico's Tropicana brand orange juice has just devalued and diluted their brand with new packaging. In an attempt to update the famous Tropicana look, designers seem to have gone the generic private label low-end price route with this new design. It fails miserably.

The design is so awful and so recessive on the supermarket shelf that stores like my local Ralph's now have hanging signs (never seen before in the refrigerator section) to point out that this new look indeed is the old tried and true Tropicana brand orange juice....can you say ugly?

As a focus group moderator of many years, I cannot imagine that Pepsi tested this new packaging anywhere except among their in-house branding folks. In a kitchen research test I did against the other major brands 100% of participants thought new Tropicana was a store brand of lower quality than the old Tropicana packaged juice. Not good for Pepsico especially in this tough economic climate...they should go back to the old packaging or fix this one immediately.

I have to believe the brand is losing market share fast.

What do you think?

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli

IBM becoming UNAMERICAN brand?

Reports indicate that IBM has offered employees who are likely to be laid off shortly by Big Blue the "opportunity" to move to India and become part of the company's out-sourced work groups. IBM will help with relocation. (How nice of them...)

Various organizations have condemned this news...although IBM will not confirm it but does acknowledge they will be laying off workers shortly.

Imagine, IBM once thought to be a stalwart American brand thinks offering thousands of employees the opportunity to leave the US to stay employed is a good thing....I haven't heard anything so ANTI-AMERICAN in a long time.

Maybe if IBM's top executives would take a pay cut many of these folks could not only keep their jobs but also keep them here in the United States.

Let's hope this doesn't really materialize as a result of pressure from Americans and our new President.

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli

Super Bowl Ads 2009; Not very super: Pretty weak and boring

Like many millions of folks, including fellow marketeers, I spent a good part of Super Bowl 2009 watching the ads looking for memorable creative that would be worthy of $3 Million per spot.

Unfortunately folks, most ads were dull, boring, meaningless, stupid and certainly not memorable. If you are going to spend all that money to place a commercial in the Super Bowl, at least ensure the ad is one that will entertain and hopefully influence. In  my opinion, a lot of companies wasted a lot of money last night.

I found myself wondering, "what message are they trying to get across here?" in most cases and saying out loud, "that wasn't the least bit funny". By the end of the game, I had a very hard time remembering what brands had been advertised.

I feel the Bridgestone Tire ads (yes I do remember the brand) were the most "huh?" ads for me...seemingly disjointed and unclear what their message was all about. I certainly have no idea why I would want to buy that brand of tire.

The Cola wars are back but I didn't develop any partiality to one brand over another because of their ads.

Doritos? Awful just like the product in my opinion.

Budweiser needs to find a new ad agency.

A few were somewhat memorable.

The E-Trade talking baby is back with a friend and always gets a chuckle out of me. I enjoy this creative and think it is memorable stuff.

Pedigree Pet Food did a splendid job promoting animal adoptions showing why it is better to adopt a dog than many other (wild) pets. (Full disclosure: I provided expert commentary about this ad prior to its airing for a major media source...no pay...but I was already positively predisposed to the creative.)

Jason Statham continued his James Bondesque activities showing Audi's new A6 is one helluva fast car. I love the Transporter movie franchise I must admit. I think I might actually buy an Audi next time I have enough money to buy a new car, (if the economy improves).

Monster.com's "moose-head" ad was cute and clearly calls out that it is time to find a new job...if there are any out there......

The surprise hit for me was Cash4Gold.com. The late night direct response advertiser was "allowed" to buy space usually reserved for the prestigious consumer products/services brands because the economy is so weak and NBC had lots of unsold inventory. The bottom feeder advertiser used Ed McMahon and MC Hammer especially well to promote their mail-in gold redemption for cash service. It was surprisingly good creative that wasn't so cheesy as I would have thought and did a great job of message delivery with humor.

Finally, but it was an in-house ad for NBC's Hulu online service, Alex Baldwin did a nice "30 Rock" styled ad for the website that was extremely well-done and memorable.

What did you think? Share your thoughts.

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli

Michael Phelps: Pot smoking photo to undermine his brand value

Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps has proved that his publicity machine can't prevent bad judgments from undermining his marketing value.

A tabloid picture of the 8 gold medal winner smoking a pot water-pipe at a university party this past November has caused the Olympian to make a public apology for his drug using behavior.  Prior to winning his gold medals Phelps had been arrested for driving while being impaired.

This incident could greatly diminish the "Phelps brand" which yours truly said in various press interviews during the Olympics was never going to be worth the billions many experts predicted. Besides the fact that it was going to be hard for his handlers to keep his name "current" and meaningful with few swimming events to compete in until the next summer Olympics, it was obvious from watching him be interviewed that he lacked the maturity of say an athlete like Tiger Woods.

Now many of his endorsements may be in jeopardy as consumer product companies have the option to drop him (and stop paying him) for this infraction. This photo questions Phelps ability to continue as a meaningful role model for young people around the world which is the reason so many companies wanted to throw millions at him in endorsement fees.

It is a sad day for athletes when these kind of events occur. However, it reminds us that even super athletes are just regular human beings and we shouldn't put them on such high pedestals and pay them so much money for being super athletes.

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli