Innocent Drinks

Innocent Drinks

Evaluate the organisation’s (Innocent Drinks) use and selection of tactical campaign elements of the promotional mix as part of its integrated marketing communications strategy, taking into account the characteristics, attitudes and behaviours of the target audience to critique the promotional choices made.

Creative culture strengthens brand values and drives profits
Innocent Drinks
From its humble beginnings as a stall at a small music
festival in 1998, Innocent has grown into an
international brand with a turnover of £76 million.
Developing and sustaining a creative culture among
its entire workforce has enabled Innocent Drinks to
remain true to its core brand values throughout an
extended period of growth and expansion.
Problem Response Result
How could three friends build a
business to help them realise
their dream of ‘making every
day a bit healthier’?
Using creative thinking, the trio
set up a business that aimed to
be ‘a fast growing company that
acts responsibly’
Eight years after
launching, Innocent
Drinks has a turnover
of £75million
08 November 2006, Updated 27 November 2009
In 1998, three men decided to try out a new
business venture by selling pure fruit
smoothies at a small music festival. They
provided two dustbins for customers to
deposit their empty cups, one labelled ‘yes’
the other ‘no’. The question on a sign above
the bins read ‘should we give up our jobs to
make these smoothies?’. By the end of the
day, the ‘yes’ bin was overflowing, and Innocent Drinks
became a reality.
Starting a business
Innocent was the brainchild of professionals Richard Reed, Jon Wright and Adam Balon,
who identified a need among fellow workers for an easy way to make each day a bit
healthier.
Innocent was formed with the very simple idea that
every product contains 100 per cent pure, fresh
ingredients and no fruit concentrates.
But this simplicity belies a more fully formed business
strategy, best described in the founders’ profile
documents: ‘That with a non-corporate attitude, a
sincere commitment to the cause and creative thinking, it is possible to create a fast
growing company that acts responsibly.’
Following an initial investment in £500 worth of fruit for their first stall, the trio drew on
help from friends, family and colleagues to secure a further £250,000 from a venture
capitalist. With limited resources Innocent couldn’t afford to hire external agencies to
design and develop the company’s look and feel, employing instead one of their friends,
Dan Germain, as Head of Creative. ‘We didn’t have more design knowledge than any
group of city dwellers exposed to design in their everyday lives,’ he says. ‘Our user testing
was done on people we knew and we’d email our friends with packaging designs.’
Instinct played a big part in the development of the
Innocent logo and packaging. ‘We tried to make
everything say instantly that the product is fun and
good for you,’ explains Germain. ‘We didn’t have any
sophisticated marketing plan, we just wanted to like
the way it looked and tasted and for it to stand out
on café shelves.’ After consultation with Innocent’s
core target market – young, urban professionals (i.e.,
the group’s friends) – the apple with halo logo was
chosen as the one that most clearly illustrated
Innocent’s core values.
From the outset, Innocent has delighted its customers with its straightforward, almost
irreverent approach to business, using a simple, down-to-earth communications technique
that mirrors the no-nonsense honesty of the Innocent brand and its products.
Unusually, this approach is also used with retailers, who receive regular communications
from Innocent, such as a newsletter that combines product information with fun stories.
In this way, Innocent has developed a huge network of customers and partners who
Germain describes as ‘friends’ (customers being ‘simply friends who we haven’t met yet’).
You are missing video content!
To view our video content you will need to install Flash 8 and ensure that you have
JavaScript enabled.
Read our accessibility page for further information.
Richard Reed explains how Innocent started.
Read the video transcript
Crucial to the company’s success to date has been its employment strategy, striving to
employ experts in every relevant field from ethical procurement to web design. Last year,
Innocent was named as top employer by the Guardian newspaper. In the same year, the
company recorded a turnover of £38 million – proof, if proof were necessary, that a
commitment to company culture and wholesome brand values really can lead to
outstanding commercial success.
‘If you have truly inspiring and motivated people around you, you can do anything,’ says
Germain. ‘We have an ambition to be Europe’s most talent-rich company, and as long as
we keep trying to achieve that, we’ll be ok.’
Next page
Innocent recent awards
Business XL10 – Company of the Year
E&Y Young Entrepreneur of the Year
National Business Awards – Small/Medium Business of the Year
Growing Business Awards – Most Promising New Company
Orange Small Business of the Year
Orange Marketing Campaign of the Year
Orange Innovative Company of the Year
Best Investors in People – National Business Awards
Innovative Company of the Year – Growing Business Awards
Copyright © 2009 Design Council | Conditions of use | Privacy policy | Accessibility
Legal notice: By using this website you agree to be bound by our Conditions of use. The
Design Council is not responsible for content on
external websites linked to from this site.

Is this the question you were looking for? If so, place your order here to get started!