Nudie lies

See this article on the Sydney Morning Herald: Nudie’s labels bare-faced cheek.

As I see it, Nudie HAD two key differentiators going for it:
1. A personable brand that projected realness.
2. A product that is made from real fruit as opposed to reconstituted or filler juices.

It is common for fruit juice or fruit drink* manufacturers to pad out their products with apple or pear juice as these are inexpensive and sugary. Especially with products that contain more expensive exotic fruit like blueberries, guavas and cranberries. The next time you are in a supermarket, look at the list of ingredients. The cheaper exotic juices will (or should!) list apple or pear juice as a large proportion of the contents.

Nudies do sell at a higher price, and supposedly you get nothing but the real fruit. This is where their lying will cost them dearly. The only reason they would pad out their juices with apple/pear is greed. They are already charging a premium price for premium juice after all.

Nudie management has probably forgotten their roots, and fell into the “do it like everyone else” approach. And in doing so, they destroyed both their market differentiators in one fell swoop. Nudie is now yet another faceless juice manufacturer.

I certainly feel cheated by them.

* Fruit drinks are made from fruit juice diluted with sugared water, whereas fruit juices must contain primarily juice (with an allowance for vitamins and preservatives possibly).

4 comments on “Nudie lies”

1. Tim Pethick said:
   

   Here! Here! Zern

   We should all feel cheatedby it. As the founder of the company I feel devastated that owners of this business have taken a great product and a great brand and sacrificed the foundation of both – integrity.

   Th most important asset any brand can have is it’s trusted relationship with consumers. To sacrifice that for some ort of short term cost saving is inexcusable

   
   21 June 2008 at 2:00 pm
2. Zern said:
   

   Hi Tim,

   I can imagine how difficult it must be for you to see the decline of Nudie.

   From my limited external viewpoint, what I see is this:

   1. You founded the brand with a set of clear values linked to congruent actions. Meanwhile, the Conventional Business Persons (CBPs) sit behind in their established towers and smiled indulgently at the newcomer.
   2. Nudie starts making a name for itself. It builds momentum. Customers start loving the brand and products. CBPs sit up and note your 18million turnover.
   3. CBPs take over the management of Nudie. They decide it is time to stop being cute, changing things, and having fun. Afterall, it is now a SERIOUS business. As we all know, big money = serious business right?! They stopped playing. They made Nudie less real and more conventionally corporate.
   4. CBPs start looking at existing models in the same industry. They copy what others have done, which is of course the safest course of action (and the least innovative). This would have affect staff morale. Good people would have been disenfranchised. The brain and heart drain starts.
   5. Simplistic product line extensions appear, such as the Nudie popsicles. This diluted the product line clarity and focus. Is Nudie a healthy juice company? Or a frozen dessert manufacturer?
   6. Co-branding partnerships appear, such as the one with McDonald’s. This cheapened the Nudie brand – even the packaging’s design integrity was destroyed as it became subsumed under the McDonald’s look and feel. I would not have guessed that McDonald’s clientele is the same as Nudie’s clientele. This move may have helped McDonald’s “we are healthier now” drive more than it did Nudie’s position as a premium brand.
   7. Further conventional business decisions are made that affected product quality. Just like many other juice manufacturers, Nudie management decides to use cheap filler juices like apple and pear. This saves Nudie money. That has to be a good thing right? Customers won’t know any better. After all, the similarly adulterated competitive products still sell right?
   8. But just in case customers are wondering, maybe we should avoid listing apple and pear juices on our labels. Hey, not having to redesign new labels saves us even more money! What a winner.
   9. *** insert cream pies on faces ***

   Are you able to confirm or deny or add to any of this?

   
   22 June 2008 at 1:06 am
3. Tim Pethick said:
   

   Zern, you are very close to the mark.

   The fundamental issue though is this – most companies and brands continually dissappoint their customers. The nudie brand was built astonishingly quickly because we aimed never to disappoint; instead we wanted to continually delight our customers. This is the “clear values – congruent actions” you refer to.

   This was not inherently understood, or taken on board, by those who took control of the company.

   And now, like every other brand, nudie has disappointed customers. Rather than exceeding their expectations it has lived down to them.

   
   23 June 2008 at 9:35 am
4. Zern said:
   

   Thanks for this Tim. Food for thought indeed. (Or should that be juice for thought?)

   
   24 June 2008 at 1:10 am

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