The environment in which Innocent competes is dynamic and complicated. To maintain development and achieve a competitive edge, almost every firm takes into account external issues like political, economic, legal, and many others. When a company maintains earnings that are higher than the norm for its industry, it has a competitive edge. Innocent has concentrated on providing those who work long hours and have little free time with wholesome, fresh smoothie drinks. Innocent had developed a reduced-cost strategy to create value by actions to satisfy customers, gain a position in its industry, and add value. The primary package to maintain a competitive advantage over the long term may be seen as the internal capabilities and resources of the company.
A company’s branding is the position it wants to hold and the promise it wants to make to its customers. According to their fundamental principle—to be more ethical, natural, and organic—Innocent Drinks develops its brand identity. It is used by the corporation in many aspects of its operations. First, a brand logo that resembles a face was made using only basic circles, and it appears from its design that it is difficult to grasp what Innocent Drinks truly accomplish. The logo does, however, correspond to the idea of innocent, simple, and natural, which is remarkable. From the perspective of the firm, it is purposefully designed to have no meaning.
Second, the layouts on the Innocent Drinks webpage are asymmetrical. The large knitted image on the left represents Innocent Drinks’ most recent charitable endeavor. Additionally, the news that is provided on the website contains humor as well as conventional facts. The design of the Innocent Drinks website is focused on the user and customer, not the staff. The organization actively maintains its internal communications while maintaining a simple, enjoyable, and customer-oriented web design. The website adheres to its design culture’s ethical aspect as well.
The Innocent Drinks team thought that the people they should be oriented on were the green ones. It was believed that people who are interested in the environment, organic products, and health would be the ones who would become their consumers (Innocent_2021). On its bottles, Innocent boldly displays the first CSR action they do. They make a commitment to their customers to only utilize fresh fruit, free of concentrates and preservatives, so that when you take your first sip, you know you’ve entered smoothie heaven. The wide smoothie varieties are small adventures in a teeny bottle, providing you with at least two of the necessary daily servings of fruit in each bottle. They make every effort to have their fruits cultivated in Europe and ship or transfer them. When they do need to import fruit, they collaborate with groups like the Rainforest Alliance to make sure the most environmentally friendly variety is used in their production (Highfield, 2012). The stakeholder value in this context means that people who buy Innocent products make an impact – as they are stakeholders as well.
The acquisition by Coke must have had a negative impact on Innocent. As the brand positioned itself underground and customers trusted it, some of them might have concerns regarding the product in the future. Nevertheless, as such products are becoming more popular, the acquisition is beneficial for Coke, whereas it is hard to tell if Innocent benefited from it. The brand partially might have lost trust and love for it, yet Coke will provide it with better marketing and distribution, so the changes are positive. What united the founders of the brand was the idea of creating a healthy and fun product (LeadersIn, 2015). Their values were similar in terms of creating a community of consumers of the drink and communicating with them through the product and sharing positivity. Other values were related to committing to ethical, charitable, social, and environmental goals. Founders were trying to find a connection with the consumers using these values.
References
LeadersIn. (2015). Richard Reed, Co-founder, innocent – full interview [Video]. Youtube. Web.
Highfield, V. (2012). How Innocent used ethics and trust to create customer engagement – Richard Reed, Innocent Drinks [Video]. Youtube. Web.