Olipop's shift from niche to big soda

Some redesigns are like taking a piss in a wetsuit:
you get a nice warm feeling, but no one else notices.

Olipop have just launched a packaging refresh and it is exactly that.

This episode is going to explore whether I think that’s the right approach or not.

Let’s go.

This edition of supergoods is brought to you by Mind Control - the branding and packaging studio behind this newsletter.

Right now we are working on brand & packaging across coffee liqueur, K-beauty, ready meals, salty snacks and a whole lot more. These are all dream projects.

But on the vision board for the year, we wanna work across confectionary, coffee, wine and hospo brands. If you or anyone you know can make this happen, there’s a special prize^* for you.

Throwing it out into the world for magic to happen.
_{*prize is a firm handshake and eternal glory.}

V1: The epic redesign that created $500m from thin air

You’ve probably seen the reposts of this visual again and again.

People claiming this one little shift skyrocketed the brand into growth.

Clearly the real story is a little more nuanced than that, but I’m sure the clarity contributed.

And for sure, it’s a solid redesign (all the reposts ignore every other business fundamental they nailed for growth, but hey, it was def impactful packaging).

Leaning into the nostalgia of soda and dialling up the flavour visuals is an obvious win.

Giving the “digestive tonic” the axe was also smart. No one wants to drink that.

Making variants easier to navigate with clearer SKU names and colour coding is a classic CPG move.

There is a lot to love about this redesign.

But there’s one bit I’ve always hated:

The chameleon logo.

They had solid brand colours in the first version. The forest green and cream play beautifully together, and they would’ve worked nicely across the new palette of pastel colours introduced in the redesign.

I get that flexing the logo colours across packs creates a nice rainbow effect. It looks fun and modern.

But I’ve always been confused why brands choose this path.

The logo is a sacred asset.

Colours are a shortcut. A code that people learn and then use to recall the brand and find it quickly across different environments.

How are consumers going to instantly recognise your brand if it appears in a different colour every time they see it?

And this throughline continues to the problem I see at shelf today.

The fridge is a cluttered environment.

Real estate is expensive, so retailers pack every square inch of fridge space with product.

That creates an ultra-competitive space where every design decision becomes either an edge or a friction point.

Shoppers move through the single-can selection process at speed. It’s impulsive. They’re on the go. They don’t have time to linger.

The brands that stand out the most here use colour to their advantage.

They pull consistent colours across SKUs to block their facings together and create a thread through the range that amplifies their presence.

Here’s a fun little task for you:

Find Olipop in the fridge below.

How easy or hard was it?

Now scroll back up and find KIF.

Easier or harder?

KIF has literally half the number of facings.

Yet I find it easier to spot because there’s a consistent KIF billboard that makes their 4 facings feel like 8.

And I’m not saying this is the secret to success and Olipop messed up.

Clearly, their business has been ultra successful.

But I do wonder if their shelf presence could be amplified so they aren’t leaving a single cent on the table.

Imagine they had retained their green logo from V1.

Shoppers would simply find the brand quicker in the chaos.

The reality is that people buy from a repertoire of brands. No one is 100% loyal.

Olipop shows up in so many different buying scenarios, across different shelves and retail outlets.

Simply removing a tiny bit of friction in finding the brand could help increase velocity and squeeze more juice out of the lemon.

V3 has entered the chat

If I had to guess, I’d say this redesign was about making the brand easier to shop across variants.

The range has expanded, new flavours have launched, and the core range has become clear and established - things that were probably relatively unknown when they selected the palette for V2.

So it makes total sense that they’ve amped up the saturation. They’ve shifted from similar hues to a more locked, differentiated colour set.

But the tension I have with these deeper colours is that it puts them closer to their biggest threat and competitor:

Poppi.

The shelf shot above shows the two brands with incredible ranging in Erewhon.

They were always easy to tell apart at a glance because their colour palettes were so different. Poppi’s bright and energetic. Olipop’s calm and collected.

Purely for the love of the game, I mocked up the new design on the same shelf.

Two things become instantly clear:

1. Their colour palette is definitely closer to Poppi.

2. And the rainbow logo probably still works against them.

At this point, their brand is the most valuable asset. So I completely understand not making major changes to it. In fact, it’s the smarter, safer move. And they are kind of locked by their history now. Millions of shoppers recognise their brand.

What I love about this redesign is that the flavour cues have become stronger without doing much to change the design.

They’ve pulled back claims and information, and used clever elements like outlines and breathing room to give the illustrations more room to shine.

I think this design update will work well for them.

It’s another step closer to becoming “big soda”.’