Innocent or Guilty Nudie Drink
Copying Successful Overseas Business Brands
Which came first, the unique innocent drink concept or the copycat nudie drink brand?
Innocent Drink was hatched in the UK in 1998 , Nudie Drinks followed in Australia in 2002.
Background:
Nudie was formed in about November 2002 but we went into our first outlet on the 8 January 2003 so we’ve been operational for about 12 months, said Nudie founder Tim Pethick.
Source: www.charteredaccountants.com.au
"Tim Pethick developed a taste for fresh fruit juice with no preservatives, straight from the bottle while living overseas in the UK and US. When he got back to Australia in 1999, he found he had to make juices at home to feed his habit as there was nothing similar in the Australian market."
Source: www.abc.net.au
The Defence:
Critics accuse Nudie of being a copy of the Innocent brand of fresh fruit juices from the UK. Of these remarks, Tim is nonplussed. "I’ll be the first to admit that I draw inspiration from brands I’ve observed in the different markets I’ve been in the last 25 years.
But I don’t think you can say that nudie is a complete copy of any one or two brands" "I’m biased, but personally, I think we’ve done a better job as a brand than Innocent, or even the Naked brand of juices from the US, whom we’ve been compared to as well," he continues. "That’s simply because the intention was never to create nudie as just a juice brand, which they are, but I always wanted nudie to be an inspiration brand that would be able to stretch to other categories."
My Verdict: Tim is a really nice guy, but I have to be on the side of the critics, nudie the brand was never portrayed as an all round brand that was not limited to just being juice, I failed to find any evidence of Tim mentioning this when Nudie was first established.
"I always wanted nudie to be an inspiration brand that would be able to stretch to other categories."
I believe he was in the UK and copied the innocent drink model, a small child like character that is in the nude, looks innocent enough, but the similarities are drawn. What does one do with a popular brand, they extend it to other categories, the healthy ones of course! So this gives a "boost" to the theory that many Australians gain so called "inspiration" from products and services overseas and rush back home to copy them and implement them asap.
Not so innocent range of nudie.
The innovators in the UK.
Case study links : Innocent drinks
“Innocent has been held up for six years as a shining beacon of what a brand can do. The writing on the packaging is engaging and charming and makes you believe in them, and it has taught the marketing community what can be done in a different way,” Ford says.
As a result, there have been copycats, but a large number of companies still fail to grasp the benefits of injecting a bit of personality into packaging. “There are loads of brands that are missing a trick. They need to engage you and make you feel like you’re having a relationship,” concludes Ford.
The website also takes a simple but powerful approach to words and writing style. A link to Innocent’s online gym is titled “I’m fat. Let me in.”
Mitchell also makes friends with customers in supermarkets. “I’m always going up to people and asking what they think of that flavour, or why they haven’t chosen us over a competitor. It‘s great to get direct feedback like that.”
