I love the Innocent company and look forward to their quirky newsletters arriving every month, eagerly scrolling down to the bottom to see what amusing link delights await me. I love the cute marketing, the colourful bottles of lovely juices, the funky little knitted hats and the fun blog where everything about the company it totally transparent.
But, i am stunned that they have given a 30 million stake in their business to the corporate giants of soft drinks Coke. Coke stands for unhealthy drinks so loaded with sugar that when my baby brother drinks it he bouncing off the walls for an hour.
James Quincey, group business unit president for Coca-Cola Europe, said the group was delighted to be investing in Innocent. “We have long admired their brand, their products and their unique approach to business,” he added.
co-founder Richard Reed of Innocent said “every promise that Innocent has made, about making only natural healthy products, pioneering the use of better, socially and environmentally aware ingredients, packaging and production techniques, donating money to charity and having a point of view on the world will remain.We’ll just get to do them even more.”
But i don’t understand, Innocent employs 275 people, has a turnover of more than £100m and sells about two million smoothies per week, why do they need this involvement from Coke, Ok they can do more work for charity but what harm are they doing in the process. I just don’t see how they can up hold their ethical credentials in light of this, after all Coke was recently made to correct its advertising campaign in Australia because its claims that Coke did not make you fat or rot your teeth were deemed “misleading”.
Read the Twitter feed to see just how pissed some of their customers are http://twitter.com/innocentdrinks
Related articles by Zemanta
- CocaCola smoothes path for Innocent stake (telegraph.co.uk)
- Coke ads not ‘the real thing’, says Aussie ad regulator (news.bbc.co.uk)
- FDA warns Coca-Cola about claims on diet drink (ctv.ca)
- Will Organic Coca-Cola Be the Next Step? (findmeacure.com)
- Can innocent extend their way out of trouble? (wheresthesausage.typepad.com)
- Coke Finally Removes “Classic” From Its Label [Marketing] (consumerist.com)
- Drinking water can help kids keep excess weight off, researchers say (nationalpost.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=450aa51d-f95f-4ff2-a069-24b99c5b1fc9)
Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Moran
Although this might come as quite a shock when considering the overall ‘ethos’ of the brand and indeed our own perception of the brand and it’s products, the colour of money really (and this story in particularly) just go to show how brands, products and people can change or take new forms (both visibly and our minds) in pursuit of bigger profits, wider distribution or indeed maximise the opportunity to capture our attention.
Personally, I love the Innocent products and remember when they were only quite small when I was working for the then small Coffee chain Cafe Nero (before it isn’t floated on the stock exchange), and it’s a great story for any business. I only hope the fall out from it’s most loyal customers and evangelists doesn’t do more damage. This is, after all, a world where we have the tools to say what we want….. and the whole world is listening.
I totally agree, they have a huge following that are extremely loyal.
Just yesterday morning i had an email from them to say they i was invited to one of those ‘funky taste test meets they have’..lots of cake and pots of tea. (probably can’t eat the cake, but never mind) and then i read this about Coke and it did but i spoiler on the whole thing for me, i get what your saying about them being a business and therefore looking forward and upward.. but their stepping stone was ‘being real’ and well.. ethical and that has got them where they are. Their fans might well feel lied to, and the fact that there was such a hoopla about getting Innocent into McDonalds and they swayed to pressure from loyal customers on that score.. why not this one?
It is an interesting one though and i am keen to see where it leads.. x
Hey!. I think you could also make more of it through a bigger exposure about \”t sold out to Coke for 30 million | Minkbaby green product reveiws and ethical website promotion\”. Perhaps you can have some fda chocolate vegetable fat.