Is innocent suffering from multiple personality disorder?

The new ad for innocent's orange juice stopped me in my tracks when watching the TV last night. But for the wrong reasons.

Gone was innocent's emotional "sizzle": the irreverent, quirky and entertaining tone of voice. Instead, there were shots of sunny orange orchards. Lots of fruit. And a serious, deep toned, grown-up voice telling us earnestly that "the fewer the steps between the orange juice in your glass and the oranges on the tree, the better the taste" and that "innocent is not made from concentrate".

Seems familiar, right? That's because it looks and sounds like an ad for Tropicana.

Click below in the blog to watch the ad:

I posted a year ago on my doubts about innocent being able to compete versus Tropicana in basic juice with a me-too product. At least they had some emotional sizzle to be distinctive, I thought. Despite this, I think innocent have struggled to make inroads into Tropican's share. Now the sizzle has gone too I can't see them doing any better.

The problem here is that the innocent juice advert fails to build on the distinctive "memory structure" they have built up through a decade of consistent marketing. This means the ad is less likely to stand out and be recalled, as it now looks like every other juice ad. The one thing they do have is a nice new plastic carafe, which looks like it has been borrowed from fellow Coca-Cola juice brand Minute Maid, which also struggled in the UK market.

To make things even more confusing, there is a whole different style and tone of innocent communication being used for the core smoothies, here. Again, the trademark innocent style and tone has been ditched and replaced with a portrayal of innocent smoothies as super heros to save you from snack cravings.

At the same time as all this, the website and newsletter still have the animated, quirky and "innocent" visual style and tone.

For so long innocent was a great example of consistent marketing, both across channels and across time. This allowed it to get more bang for a limited budget. Now we have seem to have a brand suffering from multiple personality disorder.

What the hell is going on?

 

 

Comments

[mulberry outlet]

Now we have a great walkway that goes to the beach and to the canals that came from the partnership of community with government

[derek johnston]

Iv'e just noticed your blog on the new Innocent carafe.

As the structural packaging designers of the new look carafe, I can indeed say that we looked to utilise aspects of the Minute Maid packaging platform - namely the cap which reduces the need to produce new tooling, saving money and resources.

But the main body of the bottle has been created to harmonise with the look of the regular innocent smoothie bottle - extending the family brand feel. Stepping away from composite carton has been the key to building the look and also encouraging recycling and importantly, reuse around the home (excellent for kids straws and making instant maracas I've found)

Seriously though, Judging by consumer reaction, it was a good move. Discounting aside, people are loving the new shape and purchasing on 'visual impulse'. Marketing science vs marketing sense? Let the public decide.

[Blog Specialist]

Multiple personality disorders can cause a huge curb in the active lifestyle. If multiple personality disorder disrupts your daily performances you can always call for therapists whenever needed.

[Alex Benady, Coley Porter Bell]

The reaon behnind this particular creative work is probably globalisation. It seems that Coca Cola has adopted the same approach to multi-market branding as Unilever. Unilever doesnt insist that its global brands are called the same thing in every market, just that they occupy the same brand space and positioning, using well known local brand names. So Persil is also known as Skip and Omo in other markets.

The Innocent ad is not only similar to Tropicana, it is exactly the same creative work as minute Maid in the US, badged with a few seconds of Innocent at the front of the film. So Coca cola is creating a global orange juice brand, presumably to compete with Tropicana.

But that still doesnt explain why they would pay all that money for Innocent only to ditch its costly equities soon after.

[Tim Barkey]

Having worked on the Tropicana brand the "new" Innocent OJ packagaing is also reminiscent of the 1990's Tropicana ambient packaging - also in the carafe style bottle.

Totally agree with the branding disconnect and the feeling that the tone of voice sounds all wrong for Innocent. Feels like Coca Cola having another crack at Tropicana by using Innocent as the launch platform.

[kevin kirkwood]

Couple these factors together to decide what the best combination to hold your project.

[Phil from Decode Marketing]

I liked your piece on the new Innocent juice advertising and I completely agree with you. In our experience, a radical departure from the implicit profile (what you call ‘memory structure’) does not result in purchase because it does not trigger the same neuropsychological rewards as the original. I guess we used to call this cognitive dissonance. Even a deliberate attempt to reposition should only seek to stretch the profile because the autopilot/implicit system needs time to re-train (c.10,000 hours or 2 years).
I bet if we put this ad through our ‘brand fit test’ vs the Innocent implicit profile we’d find it to be ‘off-brand’.

Keep up the great work!!