Shoppers recognise products using colour and shape

Some examples of colour and shapes that you might be familiar with are:

• The red and white Marlboro pack is famous the world over
• The Johnsons teardrop signals the brand to the shopper
• The absolute vodka bottle shape is synonymous
• The Coke white font on a red background
This is one of the reasons why changes to a packs colour and shape can affect sales. In fact industry research shows that only 10% of pack changes increase sales while 20% decrease sales. (Young S. , 2010) (Packaging News, 2011)

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PepsiCo in the USA discovered this in 2009 when they changed the packaging for their market leading juice brand Tropicana. On January 8th their new pack started to appear in stores, the orange colour on the new pack was quite different, the branding had been reduced and the benefit claim “100% Orange Juice” significantly increased.
(NISEN, 2013)
However by February 23rd the company announced that it would be moving back to the old packaging. Why? They had lost 2% of sales or about 35 Mil USA in the 2 months the new product had been on the shelves. (Young & Ciummo, 2009)
The learning: shopper confusion at shelf happens when multiple pack equity components are changed at once.
Even Coca Cola, one of the world’s great packaging owners recently made this mistake! In 2011 they introduced over a billion white polar bear cans to replace their red can as part of a World Wildlife Fund campaign to highlight the threat to the bears\’ habitat.
Unfortunately people confused this new White can for the Silver Diet Coke can. As a result their complaint line was flooded with calls, the $\"2\"$ most serious of which came from diabetics who drank the full sugar red can liquid by mistake. (DAILY MAIL , 2011)

References
DAILY MAIL . (2011, December 2). Coca-Cola ditches holiday-special snow white can and brings back red again after frosty reception by customers mistaking it for Diet Coke. DAILY MAIL .
NISEN, M. (2013, September 2). This Logo Change Caused Tropicana Sales To Plunge. Business Insider.
Packaging News. (2011, July 8). Drinks: the search for a refreshing new look. Retrieved June 19, 2012, from Packaging News: http://www.packagingnews.co.uk/markets/drinks/the-search-for-a-refreshing-new-look/
Young, S. (2010, January). Winning at the two moments of truth. Retrieved June 7, 2012, from http://www.prsresearch.com: http://www.prsresearch.com/fileUploads/Winning_at_the_two_moments_of_truth.pdf
Young, S., & Ciummo, V. (2009, August). WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM TROPICANA? Brand Packaging.