Tropicana Re-design / Reading Response

Reading about how the industry and graphic design firms are having to bow to public pressure reguarding the wishes of the consumer is extremely fascinating. It shows that the power that comes from the choice of the consumer is still king. Hopefully this will hold back the trends of designing a product that is force fed back to the populous without little more than a limited focus group. As designers we want the consumer to not only need to buy the product but you want them to feel passionate about buying that particular product. The Tropicana brand symbol for example with the straw going through the orange. They didn't even realize how passionately their consumer base felt about the established icon. I don't think even the consumers realized how much they cared about purchasing Tropicana until it was changed. Mr. Campbell seeing this passion for their product even though it was because of a negative change understood that if they reverted back to the original icon those consumers would be happy. Each one of those consumers who complained about the change to Tropicana will now feel that they had a hand in bringing back the old logo. Do you think they might purchase another brand after all of that? I think not. Not only that but the hype around the change drummed up countless amounts of free marketing. The very fact that we're discussing it in Visual Language says something about it. I'm going to the grocery store tonight... guess what I might just have to purchase now? Thats right. Tropicana Orange Juice.

The other half of this article that touched on social media's influence on consumer products. I am extremely fascinated by social media, its applications, and its power in this era. Its refreshing to see that by using Twitter, and Facebook the consumers have a voice that will allow those companies and the design / advertising firms they hire to produce better work based on that feedback. If anything we should see advertising become increasingly effective across all mediums.