Tropicana to Abandon Much-Maligned Juice Carton

The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal
Tue Feb 24, 4:10 PM UTC

Patrick Conlon/The Wall Street Journal

PepsiCo Inc.'s Tropicana Products juice division said it is dropping a new carton just six weeks after rolling out the design to great fanfare, after customers complained that they couldn't differentiate between the company's pulp-free, traditional and other types of juice.

Tropicana said it expects to bring back the old, familiar packaging for its flagship Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice within a month. "We heard our consumers and we listened," Tropicana spokeswoman Jamie Stein said.

The soon-to-be abandoned design features a close-up image of a glass of orange juice and the phrase, "100% Orange." But consumers complained that the carton looked like a generic brand and also de-emphasized the type of juice inside. Tropicana is bringing back cartons featuring its iconic orange pierced by a drinking straw.

It was an embarrassing stumble for Tropicana, the largest U.S. producer of refrigerated orange juice by volume share. The Tropicana makeover was part of PepsiCo's broader effort to overhaul marketing of its biggest beverage brands, including Gatorade and Pepsi-Cola. Tropicana is a major driver in PepsiCo's beverage portfolio. The decision to ditch the cartons was reported by The New York Times and confirmed late Monday by Tropicana.

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