Plastic Brand Surgery
Ever thought about a fresh look? Nothing too drastic, maybe just some tightening here and there. A modest face lift of sorts, just to stay looking young and relevant. No one wants to be old, let alone look old. What about plastic surgery for your brand? Just a few changes to update your look, to get you noticed and keep you looking current, without butchering brand strategy. Products like Gatorade, Coors Light, Pepsi, and Tropicana all went under the creative knife. Each product has fared differently with its makeover.
Careful though; plastic surgery is said to be addicting. A new look could deter some who aren’t comfortable with too drastic of a change. When it’s all over, the brand should still look like itself. Statistics show that creative advertising during a recession could give companies a leg-up in the long run assuming they make an effort to appeal to consumers’ increased demand for value and quality. That being said, Tropicana’s botched brand makeover flopped so badly that it was scrapped in favor of the old campaign. What made their new look fail? It was too “high fashion” and totally unrecognizable. Yes, this is an orange juice carton. It was so altered that consumers literally could not find Tropicana OJ if it hit them in the face, and ultimately brand profitability suffered.
Pepsi’s controversial and extremely expensive new logo became famous (infamous?) for its resemblance to Obama’s campaign logo. Whether or not this was intentional is hard to say; what’s even more unclear is how consumers are responding. Either way, most reviews of the actual logo seem unfavorable. It looks like Pepsi is hoping now more than ever that “there’s no such thing as bad press.” Even if there is such a thing as a lopsided logo.
What does all this mean? Revamping a brand identity is more than just a superficial new look. Take Zip-Lock, for example. The brand has opted to downplay the zipper feature as a higher end perk in the plastic bag industry, choosing rather to emphasize the product’s ability to save leftover food when money is tight. Now that’s a smart change, and didn’t hurt a bit.
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I remember seeing the new Tropicana containers and wondering who on Earth could have possibly approved such a bad design. It looked like a generic store-brand container, the memorability of the orange w/ straw in it was completely lost.
I remember listening to some fringe pundits saying how the Pepsi logo looked too much like the Obama campaign symbol.
It’s definitely a sensitive topic!