PepsiCo group recently decided to take all of its major brands through a brand refresh process. Following on from Pepsi's new look, the breakfast orange juice brand Tropicana was the latest to be tackled.

The iconic, recognised, creative, individual 'does-what-it-says-on-the-tin' visual of an orange with a straw in it was replaced - with a picture of a glass of orange juice... Hmmm. I wouldn't say the words original, inspired or creative spring to mind. To be honest, it's hard to know where to start to critique this particularly uninspired re-design.

I'll give it a go though... the photo is so simple it has had the accusation of stock photography levelled at it; the white background is less stark and sophisticated, more empty and boring; the sans serif font less simplified and more simply dull; the insipid yellow less thirst-inducing than the intense orange. In fact, the only positive thing I have to say is the design of the cap in the shape of any orange. But why rely on my opinion - take a peek at the public's reaction:

'bland', 'boring', 'ugly', 'unrecognisable', 'generic', 'bargain brand feel'...

The reaction has been so bad that PepsiCo have taken the decision to pull the new packaging after just six weeks, reverting back to the orange and straw look.

So what does the branding agency - Arnell - responsible for this fiasco have to say? Apparently they are 'supporting' PepsiCo's decision to abandon their design. So let's get this straight - they've produced a design which is so bad it is withdrawn after 6 weeks - and they're not even in a position to defend it? They state that the package withdraw is "exactly what [PepsiCo] should be doing". There seems to be no acknowledgement from the agency that what has actually happened is a very costly and embarrasing mistake. There's not even a hint of an apology for getting it so wrong, for not delivering on what they were hired to do.

A refresh to a well-established brand can be very rewarding - drawing in new customers, while reviving the old faithfuls by showing you're not out of date. But it is a risky business, because what you don't want to do is upset and lose that fan base you've taken so long to build. Which is why within any rebranding/brand refreshing process there are a number of steps - from defining the purpose and desired goal of the work, to assessment to see if the new design is meeting those criteria. Most importantly there should be an element of market testing, some research, before product launch. By the number of complaints received, it seems clear that this was not adequately done - surely a true sample of regular Tropicana users would have been able to give adequate feedback that the refreshed brand was missing the mark somehow. This failure seems to reflect a lack care and respect for the product, and is hard to defend.

Perhaps a better course of action would be to identify what went wrong and produce a new look for Tropicana which actually meets the brief? Instead Peter Arnell, chairman and chief creative officer, has announced he is "glad Tropicana is getting this kind of attention" - apparently advocating the old adage that no publicity is bad publicity. In reality, an army of Tropicana fans now can't even find the drink on the shop shelves as it blends in with its rivals, which is frankly likely to cause a drop in sales.

While not all the blame lies with Arnell - after all, a company as big as PepsiCo surely has a marketing department who should also have been carefully monitoring the entire rebrand process - the agency should be hanging its head in shame for such an almighty mess, which, at its politest, has been described as a 'tactical mistake'. An error of this magnitude with a brand of this size - well, it's pretty unforgivable.

Oh - but at least they're keeping the new orange shaped cap. So it's not a total loss then.

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