Tropicana fans are ditching the brand after a bottle redesign

Tropicana recently changed the design of its bottles. The old bottles with a circular shape and a narrow neck that resembles a goblet have been changed to simpler plastic bottles, and the bottle volume has been reduced from 52 ounces to 46 ounces. The new design also has a smaller label to match the more compact bottle.

Orange juice fans are unhappy with the changes and believe Tropicana is cheating customers by reducing bottle sizes, although prices should generally be lower, but not all stores have adjusted prices to match the brand's recommendation. Consumers are looking for any sign of "shrinking inflation," that is, rising prices to reduce volume of products.

Although sales of Tropicana have been steady throughout the year, sales dropped significantly after the introduction of these new bottles. Tropicana sales fell 8.3 percent in July, 10.9 percent in August, and 19 percent in October. Tropicana has lost about four percent of its market share to Simply Orange, a brand owned by Coca-Cola.

In 2009, Tropicana made changes to its logo design that resulted in a backlash from customers and a 20% drop in sales. Tropicana dropped the new design after six weeks and brought back the old design.

Tropicana is working to refine the new bottle design based on customer feedback, including that the new bottle is easier to carry and store and uses less plastic in the lid. But some customers say that the older bottles were more comfortable to hold and that the new design not only doesn't look attractive, it looks more like other similar bottles.

In addition, some customers have complained that while the new bottle should be cheaper, some stores have not changed prices, prompting protests from consumers who have condemned Tropicana for "minimizing inflation."

These design changes show how important packaging design is to attract and retain customers. Maybe Tropicana learned the wrong lesson from the 2009 crisis, because now the changes are no longer easy to fix and it takes more time and money to restore the previous design.

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