Fascinating post from Tom Fishburne on a talk he saw by innocent smoothies' creative genius, Dan Germain. Dan told the story of how innocent was originally called Fast Tractor. The idea being that they got the fruit from harvest to bottle super fast.
You get the feeling this business would not have been quite as successful if they'd stuck to Fast Tractor, right? Which goes to show the power of brand positioning in its fullest sense:
- Sausage and sizzle: innocent is one of those great ideas which combines product sausage (no nasties) and emotional sizzle (being nice people).
- The start of a story: the innocent brand is a start of a story with many chapters. Whereas Fast Tractor would not have taken you very far.
- Universal meaning: bonus of innocent is that it works better outside the UK. Imagine trying to sell Fast Tractor to the French
So, next time you're doing positioning, a good check is if you are being more "Fast Tractor" or more "innocent"
hhhm. "Innocent" seems so.. well common, cautious, bland and could (and does) name just about any product under the sun. Despite (or because of) it's disjointed religious imagery it feels like the soulless choice of the two.
I don't know the Innocent brand. Never heard of it. But by what I see from the info you presented above Fast Tractor has the edge in my mind in being unique and telling an honest story. I give it points for NOT sounding like a safe, mass market product that makes claims I distrust.
Imagery from the farm rather than from religion helps it's sincerity, honesty and makes for richer associations I think - though a loud, smoky tractor image needs to be handled with care when associated with products you drink or eat. The Fast Tractor presentation needs a simple product description however like Innocent's "pure fruit smoothies."
The Fast Tractor name alone is a question (what is this? why is the tractor fast?) which begs an answer (we offer X). The Innocent name asks a different question -- to me anyway -- (what common product is yet another company claiming is so virginally, righteously pure?) and I almost don't care to know the answer.
I guess I value a brand that says fruit is harvested by real people working burping, belching farm machinery as I know it is over one that tries to convince me in standard marketing-ese that innocent "nice people" make products without any "nasties."
One seems more authentic than the other.
Posted by: Nat Guy | September 19, 2010 at 01:54 PM
Fast Tractor just sounds a little strange... Not sure that is the image they should be going for.
Posted by: Vinyl Banners | September 01, 2010 at 04:30 PM