Case Study- Tropicana. What’s wrong with the new packaging?

Tropicana had changed its packaging for a while, but this changes  led Tropicana to a disaster – decrease sell and brand recognition. What’s wrong with the new packaging?

New Packaging

Matt Everson pointed out eight major failures of the Tropicana redesign, including labeling, information structure, tone of voice, typography, imagery, colour, brand speak, and affordances. In this case, I would mainly focus on imagery and colour, and explain why the new packaging cause the sell decrease.   

From Tropicana’s ads(#1), Brand Packaging report (#2),and Matt Everson’s comment (#3), we know that colour is so important for Tropicana orange juice, because orange colour can inspire the appetite.

#1

#2

#3

Source: http://www.prsresearch.com/fileUploads/insightArticles/What_Can_We_Learn_From_Tropicana_Brand_ Packaging_Aug_09.pdf
Source: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/ free/0070974284/605841/sample_ch03.pdf
Source: http://astuteo.com/desktop/articles/tropicana-redesign/

Besides, Tropicana’s target audience is Balanced Living, and they tend to like natural and fresh product, therefore, Tropicana need to convey the fresh and natural orange juice product message to their audience. Tropicana’s target audience care about the juice is original and natural or not, hence, Tropicana uses colour to focus attention on orange juice, and conveys juice’s 100% fresh through the orange imagery. 

However, the Tropicana redesign packaging ignored the importance of product information and did not keep target audience in mind so that the redesign packaging failed in marketing. Scott and Vincenzo noted that “In packaging, the shopper is closer to the purchase decision, so clear, direct and more literal communication about the purchase (branding, variant, key information, etc.) is critical.” 

Want to know more information ? Check !!!  
Eight Major Failures of the Tropicana Redesign 
Pepsi Takes the Tropic out of Tropicana

Colour speaks to your audience

- Why colour is so important for packaging surface design? 
- How to choose appropriate colour in packaging surface design and to communicate specific meaning to  your audience?

Sarah & Candace pointed out that people often convey their emotional state with the metaphorical use of color, which means different colour can evoke different emotion responds. For example, Red is enthusiastic, full energy, dynamic and exciting colour, or conversely red represents fear and danger. Blue symbolizes power, loyalty, peaceful and calming, but less use in food packaging, because it suppresses appetites.

Therefore, colour is one of the reasons to influence consumer purchase. In accordance with the product category designer select appropriate colour for packaging design.


There are three approaches for choosing appropriate colour in packaging surface design.


Approach 1. Keep target audience in mind
Approach 2. Determine the purpose of your product and what message you want the
            packaging to convey to your audience.
Approach 3. Make the use of colour characteristic to grab audience attention so that
            product can stand out from the crowd.

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Approach 1. Keep target audience in mind

Keeping target audience in mind is so important for designers, because different kinds of consumer respond to distinguish lifestyle, habit, and visual language. Age, gender, economic status, and education level need to be taken into consideration when designing.

Eg. Teenagers and young adult - > bright, and more sophisticated and complex colours.

Eg. Younger teenager girls -> varying shades of purple and pink .

Approach 2.

Determine the purpose of your product and what message you want the packaging to convey to your audience.

There are different product messages, such as luxury, professional, health, ecofriendly, energetic, and elegance, etc.. Designers should make sure the use of colour in packaging design to send the right message.

Approach 3. 

Make the use of colour characteristic to grab audience attention so that product can stand out from the crowd. 

Sarah & Candace pointed out that there is a way to grab attention by using very rich colour, and through bold colour to increase the visual excitement. The packaging is intended to make the product stand-out through bold use of colour, as well as traditional Indian patterns to grab attention.

Sometimes the most-effective packs are the most simple. Multiple colours on a pack can be both distracting to the customer and costly to produce. (Design Council, 2011) Therefore, keep the colour simple and monotone, such as black and white, or leave a lot of space to make consumer focus on what is the message it want to communicate.



Therefore, colour is a powerful design tool that influences the consumer’s response to a package and the product it contains. Through using appropriate colour to convey product message and influence consumer’s purchase decision.