The redesigned Tropicana carton (left) and the original (right)

The total image redesign was orchestrated by Pepsi-Co, who owns Tropicana, with hopes of revitalizing sales for the venerable orange juice brand. However, the new design strategy failed and sales dropped 20%. The situation was bad enough to cause Tropicana to switch back to it’s old design.

Should Tropicana’s debacle be used as a reason not to consider an image rebrand?

Not at all. Rebranding can be an effective way to bring new attention to an established company or product. A successful rebrand communicates a new approach, revitalized values or shift in focus. It must also capitalize on what worked before–elements that existing customers or clients have responded to favorably and learned to recognize and trust.

The new design was sterile and generic. The rebranded Tropicana cartons looked like they came from an entirely different universe compared to the original. There was absolutely no continuity with the previous experience and the new look didn’t offer anything interesting or exciting to grab positive attention.

A missed opportunity, Tropicana failed because it didn’t acknowledge existing expectations nor did it communicate anything original. In fact, the biggest complaint against the new cartons is that they too closely resemble a generic store brand appearance. Ouch.

When it comes to using Flash on a website, I almost always advocate against it if there are other ways to obtain the same result. Why? Flash hasn’t kept up with the constant pace of innovation on the internet. It is frequently slow to load and most “smart phones” have little or no flash support (see the iPhone). Plus, there is no guarantee that a Flash element will be properly indexed by a search engine like Google, if at all–which means less exposure for your business.

Frankly, there are better ways to achieve the same effect. Check out the “Featured Work” gallery on our home page or our graphic design gallery. These elements were done entirely without using Flash. They also degrade nicely, which means someone with a less capable device, like a mobile phone, will be able to view all of the content.

Flash, however, provides too convenient a solution for many website needs to be ignored. There is currently no better way to add video to a website. Plus, sometimes it’s the simplest way to create dynamic elements like a slideshow or gallery.

A little bit of Flash, used properly, can be impressive. The best way to proceed when Flash becomes necessary is to make sure the site is perfectly functional without it.  A sleek-looking Flash navigation menu will make your site worthless if its not visible to your site users.

Consider also the total web experience of Flash. Adding something like a spinning logo or an animated splash page might be neat the first time, but distracting on subsequent visits.

A good rule of thumb: avoid Flash unless it can add something meaningful to your site’s content.