What Happens When You Redesign?

The previous Tropicana package design on the left, with the abandoned new design on the right.

People who communicate visually for a living (graphic designers, art directors, creative directors) have a tendency to believe that creating a good new design for a product or a company will always increase sales and improve brand recognition. Part of the reason for this belief is that at least 75% of all the marketing pieces we’re exposed to in a day are poorly conceived and executed—think of most of the web sites you see, the TV ads on the local news, the display ads in your local newspaper or community magazine. In the same vein, most of the packages you see in your local grocery store have clearly not been designed to be “beautiful.” Those of us who learned in college how good design can improve the perception people have of products and companies naturally think that if we redesign the way a thing looks or communicates, it will be more successful. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

Disappointing results from a redesign

Gatorade and Tropicana, two nationally-prominent brands, redesigned their product packages earlier this year and the percentage of sales in both cases dropped by double digits. (Tropicana has since abandoned its orange juice package redesign, and gone back to the familiar “orange with a straw” carton image.) Perception Research Services, a national consumer research company, found that new consumer package designs improve sales half the time and decrease sales half the time, for no net gain.

Are redesign risks worth the rewards?

What many marketers take away from this information is that it’s always better to stick with the status quo rather than risking something new—better to have an ugly brand that’s consistent than a well-designed brand that’s new and unfamiliar. However, the same research went further to discover what it was about the successful new packages that made them work when others failed. New designs that preserve a connection with the familiar brand, but that provide “an increase in visibility” consistently boosted sales. In other words, when a customer sees that a redesigned product or redesigned information is coming from the company they trust, but that it’s been changed in some new, intriguing way, it invites “re-examination.” They take a second look, reconsider it, and bring it again into their “consideration set.”

What’s happening in customers’ heads

For many years, companies have known that “to be unseen is to be unsold.” Even when a company’s product or service is out in the marketplace, if its image is bland or ordinary, it’s “unseen.” And even companies that won’t change a tired brand for fear of losing their familiar customer base need to be active somehow in maintaining existing customers. But to attract new customers, these companies need to walk the fine line of shaking things up enough that they get a second look from new prospects without losing their current base.

What did the research show about customers who left the brand after a redesign? The main cause of brand defection after a redesign was “confusion.” If existing customers experience brand hesitation (is this my brand?) or an inability to find the desired product or information (I can’t see what I’m looking for), they’re gone. In that moment of frustration, a customer will likely move to a safer choice—a competitor—and the switch is often permanent.

Our company’s personal experience working for clients has been consistent with these research findings. One of our clients had published a series of catalogs for many years, but the information in them was confusing and the branding was poor. The first piece we redesigned for them was a Christmas catalog that boosted their sales by double what it had been the previous year. Subsequent catalogs helped to make direct sales one of the company’s main profit centers. However, when the same client contracted with an outside web development company to create a new e-commerce web site that was designed separately from the catalogs, the percentage of Internet orders declined by nearly 20 percent in the first quarter following the launch. The problem resulted from confusion felt by customers who visited the site and couldn’t easily find what they wanted.

A great way to grow the brand, if you’re careful

Because of its potential to help increase the customer base, a redesign—of a corporate logo, a package, a web site, a catalog, or another marketing piece—can be a valuable part of a company’s growth strategy. However, it needs to be undertaken carefully and under the guidance of experts who not only understand good design, but who understand the company’s audiences and their preferences.

STEPHEN HALES