Another bit of news confirming that innocent have lost focus on the core smoothies business, at the worst possible time, given the attack from Tropicana and own label.
They have decided to not run their annual festival, after 4 years of Fruitstock and The Village Fete in 2007 and 2008. And the reason? Here's what the latest newsletter says:
"We’ve got a lot of other stuff on – we’ve launched Veg
Pots and our new Squeezies recently and are trying to give them plenty
of attention. And we’re working on plenty of other new stuff too – so we’re going to focus on that."
There you have it, straight from Fruit Towers. Lots of "other stuff". Sexy new products, and no time to focus on the core brand and product range.
The annual festival was an important part of the innocent brand, and helped get them where they are. There was of course the direct consumer connection of the event itself. And beyond that the PR and buzz created by the event. One year on and a Google search on Innocent Village Fete returns 230,000 hits.
Completely agree, it was the perfect event for the brand. I don't know the real reasoning behind the move, but it should have been a top priority to roll it out again this year.
Maybe they have something else up their sleeve? An Innocent village farmers market?
Posted by: Matt | May 22, 2009 at 02:38 PM