Tradition vs. Innovation in packaging design

The issue of staying with tradition or pursuing innovative change I just mentioned in my last post reminds me of the Tropicana case in which the company drastically changed its package design and was met with such negative reaction from its original customers. Personally, I found the new package design highly appealing! I found the strategy behind the design (the glass and the orange cap) also very inspiring and different. However I was never one of their loyal customers and was never strongly connected to its original design. The agency did not do enough research on their customers to see if they would like the change and as a result Tropicana put on a mass sale of the packages and had to revert back to its old familiar packaging design. It was learning about this case in my Integrated Marketing class I was surprised to learn how difficult it is to change packaging design. Then I realized that it makes so much sense as the more physically close or familiar the product or design may be to the consumer the more difficult it is to change the design, unless consumers are already dissatisfied with the product or design. As stated in my sociology class, society does not like change. Especially for a design or a product (even though it's not the most aesthetically appealing as it can be) people may be more likely to keep the look the same just because they are more comfortable or grew up with that design.