Rebrands and case studies

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Rebrands that were reverted

Lesson 7 of 9 in Rebrands and case studies.

6 Rebranding Fails And What Went Wrong · Elements Brand Management
Lesson

Tropicana is the case everybody cites and most people cite wrongly. In January 2009 PepsiCo launched packaging by the Arnell Group across North America: the orange-with-a-straw was gone, replaced by a glass of juice and a quiet modernist layout. Sales of the line fell around 20 per cent in under two months, costing tens of millions of dollars, and in late February PepsiCo announced that the old pack was coming back.

the relauncheleven yearspart of it comesback, slowlytime →equity is the one brand asset you cannot buy back quickly
Recognition built slowly over years and dropped in a single relaunch.
On the left a hand grabs a carton with a large sun emblem from a crowded fridge, and on the right the same carton, redesigned in a plain pale style, blends in while the shopper hunts for it.
A shopper grabs a carton instantly by its big sun emblem, then cannot find it after a tidy redesign removes the sun. Customers lose the very thing they used to spot you by.
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  1. Question 1, locked

    Tropicana in 2009 and Gap in 2010 are both taught as customer conservatism. The lesson says each failed in its own way. Which reading is right?

    • Tropicana buyers could no longer find the carton, and Gap showed a logo with no application, so it was judged in isolation
    • Tropicana buyers disliked the new look, and Gap picked a typeface too plain for a clothing retailer
    • Tropicana lost its colour block on the shelf, and Gap announced the change far too loudly
    • Both lost buyers who preferred the older designs and said so in public
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Removing the element people actually used to find you. The mechanism behind nearly every reverted rebrand.”

    • Sameness risk
    • Distinctive asset loss
    • Sunk-cost reversal
    • Recognition test
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “The recall you throw away at relaunch and have to buy back. Rarely costed in the project budget.”

    • Recognition debt
    • Recognition drift
    • Rollout
    • Refresh

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