My friends, this is a newly released book on a brand that as a little David took on two giants like Tropicana and Minute Maid. I was fortunate to work with the brand from its inception until recently and experience true teamwork, great leadership, exciting results and some travel that I will never forget. It makes for an easy and fun read and Amazon can provide it for you with just a click. Get it. You will not regret it. Enjoy some fun summer reading with my best wishes, Harry Vardis
Atlanta, GA; May 2017 –Every once in a while a story comes along that shakes up conventional thinking. It Almost Seems Simple, a book by Susan Spann, is an unusual tale about the creation and growth of the Florida’s Natural orange juice brand – and it puts a different spin on the traditional formula for marketing success.
In the early 1980s, a sales and marketing director named Walt Lincer came to work for Citrus World, a grower-owner co-op in Lake Wales, Florida that made orange juice. He was charged with creating a new national brand. Fresh out of a job selling soap at Lever Brothers, Walt was soon able to co-opt the knowledge he acquired there and put it to use at the new, much smaller company. With no existing structure to get in his way, Walt created his own formula for selling juice.
In 1985, Walt partnered with Tucker Wayne, an established Atlanta ad agency, to devise advertising and marketing strategy for Citrus World based on the company’s existing products. When Walt got the idea for creating a new, not-from-concentrate orange juice in 1986, Syl Harris joined the account team in time to help launch a new company-owned brand. What resulted were years of gambles, hilarious adventures, and battling industry giants, as Walt trusted his gut, and Syl, to build the national brand that is still going strong to this day.
It Almost Seems Simple is a lighthearted, yet faithful recounting of stories told by Walt and Syl to someone who had a front-row seat to the whole show. In a dozen chapters, the book highlights the unorthodox strategies (and sometimes unorthodox people) who helped bring the brand to life, nurturing it through a slow roll out, manufacturing difficulties, marketing risks, competitor’s challenges and legal issues.