Anyone who’s talked to me in the last few months knows of my overwhelming disdain for the new Tropicana logo.  I must admit to feeling peevishly victorious when I learned that Pepsi has scrapped the new logo against overwhelming pressure from consumers, who felt (like me) that it betrayed the brand’s essential identity.

I was walking through the grocery store last night and thinking of my personal resistance to change…the remodeled store seems unfamiliar and alien.  It ties in with consumer reaction to the Tropicana logo, but it also raises an important question:  at what point do your clients own your brand?

Nobody knows whether the Tropicana rebrand was the result of a committee of marketing hacks or a frustrated CEO with a vision.  What I do know is that through years and years of marketing and exposure to Tropicana, I the consumer have developed a relationship with the brand to the extent where a new logo and identity felt like a betrayal of my trust and confidence.

It seems dramatic, but I believe that after a certain point the client or customer really does have an ownership stake in a good brand.  Sure, I’m not sitting on the board or determining pay cuts (and certainly I am not enamored with
Pepsi’ s own crappy logo), but in order to keep me shelling out the dough, you’re going to need to make me feel respected, heard, and part of your ongoing plans. Creating invested customers is a foundation of branding and smart marketing…let’s hope Pepsi and Tropicana learn from the smackdown and start to respect their customers’ intelligence.

What do you think?  At what point do clients develop a sense of ownership of your brand?

related posts:

1. this week in marketing, social media, and brand strategy (week of january 25)

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