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What makes Ocean Spray Great? Hal Brown 6/25/99 Ocean Spray is more that a company that collects and markets fruit. Ocean Spray to millions of consumers, and yes, their children, has for generations meant cranberries. The company logo, likewise, means cranberries, and the combined name and logo are priceless. Together they convey not only a product of the highest quality, but a company that can be trusted. People believe that Ocean Spray is a good product which is grown, made and marketed by fine, caring, honest people. The name and logo alone will induce many consumers to try a new product. Most consumers don't know or care whether a company is publicly traded or a grower owned farm cooperative. However, being the later always opens advertising opportunities which play on the notion that though big, Ocean Spray is not your typical impersonal corporation. As Tom and Tom at Nantucket Nectars have demonstrated, this is marketing at its best. Of course the image must be grounded in truth. Otherwise the fall from grace with the public can be long and hard. With the cranberry market now approaching free fall, only a handful of growers and directors are resisting accepting the awful truth about the paltry returns coming for the remainder of last year's crop payments, and the dismal outlook for next year. While some prefer blissful ignorance, grower/owners with the intestinal fortitude to do so have educated themselves about the errors made by top management at Ocean Spray. Growers who didn't even know what ERP stood for a few months ago, now know that it already cost them upwards of $30 million to install and unknown dollars in lost revenues, and will cost tens of millions to fix. Growers who wondered why the cooperative needed to roll out a new brand name and label, Wellfleet Farms, to enter the 100% juice market, when the new approach would have saved millions in the first place, now understand that no matter how much you pay them, advertising consultants still have to work within the parameters of their assignment. There are probably about ten corporations or cooperatives that would find Ocean Spray an attractive partner. Some of these are at least interested enough to put some resources into learning more about Ocean Spray. This web site has been beneficial to a few in showing not only the great strength of the company, but in helping them to understand its weaknesses. No large company will go into a partnership blind, and no large company is naive enough to believe there are no skeletons in the closet that management would rather not reveal. A sophisticated potential partner will locate and open these closets, and a company that tries to prevent this will pay the price for its duplicity. Many of those who have analyzed Ocean Spray, and the causes of the "cranberry crisis", see need for drastic changes in the way the industry leader is run. Companies are successful, in part, because they know how to learn from their mistakes and bounce back afterwards. Companies don't make mistakes, people do. Some CEOs are probably incredulous as they read about the decision to allow Tom Bullock to remain at the helm of Ocean Spray until sometime next year. They know that had they sailed their "unsinkable" luxury liner at full speed into iceberg cluttered waters, they would have been unceremoniously fired by their Board of Directors before the iceberg with their name on it came along. Corporate boards are far sighted enough to know that as long as the company remains afloat, as long as its infrastructure is intact, Captains can be be changed and new courses charted. Ocean Spray is still great because of the farmers who put it together and the farmers who continue to hold it together through hard times. It isn't great because of astute management or wise directors. |