When a new bird needs to fly the nest

I posted ealier this year on my concerns about innocent launching a new brand called This Water (From the people at innocent). This was in fact a re-launch of innocent's fruity water as a new brand. My worry was about innocent getting distracted by managing a new brand in a different category to their core smoothies.

So, I smiled when I saw how the This Water team describe themselves on their new website: 

"We're an entrepreneurial bunch brave enough to take the innocent brand off our label."

But surely its mad for a start-up strapped for cash to remove such a brilliant brand. The innocent "mother brand" would have given the new baby a better chance of survival. And the new product would have had a "halo" effect on the innocent brand as a whole.

Right?

Wrong.

What innocent have done is very smart. They recognized that innocent Juicy Water was more about water than it was about fruit. And, therefore, it didn't belong in the innocent brand. Rather than helping the product, the innocent brand was a hindrance. The brand stretch logic described above fell down on both counts:

- Mother brand helps the new product: No. In fact, the innocent brand suggested the product would be very fruity and juicy. This put off people who wanted a water. And led to people who did try it being disappointed as it was more watery than they expected!

Furthermore, as the This Water team explain: "Juicy Water never got much focus because innocent was concentrating on their smoothies."

- New product has halo on mother brand: No. First, innocent Juicy Water was small, and so as if often the case, the hoped for halo is a mirage. And as the product was about water, not fruit, it didn't feed back much anyway, even for people who did try it.

This is a case where the new "bird" is better off flying the brand nest, free to have its own identity, positioning and team.

My concern in May 2007 when This Water was launched was that innocent management time would be distracted away from the core smoothie business. However, this didn't happen, as This Water effectively became a separate business, in a separate office. Although the packs at launch had "From the innocent people" on, this has now gone altogether.

And the results? Sales have doubled since launch and the brand is now in more shops than ever. 

Too often, good products are force-fitted into brands where they don't belong with the logic that its cheaper than lauching a new brand. However, as This Water seems to show, letting the new bird fly the nest may actually make you more money in the long run.

Comments

[ali anani]

I fully concur with this post. Emotions drive actions. I published a presentation on slideshare "Bubbling Ideas", which is in conformity with this post as evidenced by four similar experiences. If interested, the link is

http://www.slideshare.net/hudali15/bubbling-ideas

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I think it is of great importance to discussing such issues and make the best of it and make things better for many in all aspects possible

[Rebeccawho]

The numbers speak for themselves, so obviously it was a good move for Innocent, but I still dont quite understand their reasoning behind this.

Personally I liked the innocent brand and was keen to buy into it but I much preferred the Juicy Water to the Smoothies. There are lots of 'posh water/juice drinks' to choose from and now Innocent have dropped Juicy Water I am less inclined to buy them. I now dont buy any Innocent products. Not a deliberate decision, just a natural move away from the brand.

But their reasoning dosent add up - 'nothing but nothing but fruit' is their slogan and I once heard Dan Germain from Innocent blame this for the drop of Juicy Water - 'because it has water in it and this isnt fruit!' BUT, what about their 'Thickies' The ingredients of which are fruitless! (one is Yoghurt, vanilla and honey!)

I cant see why it couldnt have just been a nice sub-brand, its a very very similar product. Its not like they were making cars as a side project, it was still juice!

I just dont get it...