Club Tropicana – Why the few matter
By Mike DavisonReally interesting piece in the NY Times about how Tropicana learned a lot from listening to its most active customers online.
Tropicana advocates recently rose up in defiance of a new line of packaging, brought in by marketing execs to modernize the brand. Tropicana listened and acted, removing the new line of packaging and returning to the style favoured by its advocates. Neil Campbell, President of Tropicana North America conceded that, although it was not a majority of customers making the complaints, it was “our most loyal” with a “deep emotional bond. Those consumers are very important to us, so we responded”.
Three take-outs for me:
1 – Whoever you are and whatever you do, don’t underestimate or ignore the depth of connection your product has with certain customers. There’s huge opportunity to channel their energy and and inspire them (we can help!).
2 – Tropicana didn’t wait for the focus group to glean insights from its customers. They were able to respond to an emerging issue in an agile way – just like a conversation. They didn’t have to post messages all over the web responding directly; instead their action was the response.
3 - This online channel gave them insights they simply couldn’t get anywhere else. Their other listening posts simply did not pick this up. Campbell comments, “What we didn’t get was the passion this very loyal small group of consumers have. That wasn’t something that came out in the research.”
