“We make healthy drinks. Please buy them so we don’t get fired.” That’s the plea in Innocent Drinks’ X bio. The quip is characteristic of the smoothie maker’s light-hearted tone of voice, which aims to persuade consumers to buy its products while also eliciting a laugh.
Innocent Drinks’ fun and irreverent marketing – whether it’s through witty one-liners printed on the bottles, or tongue-in-cheek dragon-slaying advice on social media – has helped establish the company as the most popular juice brand in the UK.
Sarah-Jane Norman, Innocent Drinks’ group people and culture director, says the company’s sense of humour is essential in its employer branding too. “The brand is quite light hearted,” she says. “While we take what we do seriously, we don’t take ourselves too seriously.”
The playfulness shows in the fake grass turfed throughout its ‘Fruit Towers’ headquarters in London, its requirement for job applicants to be “good at drinking smoothies” and its published ‘Guide to Eternal Meeting Happiness’, which aims to limit unnecessary Zoom calls and ensure meetings rarely overrun.
“It’s a classic example of using the Innocent tone of voice and a bit of humour to change people’s behaviours,” Norman says.
But, while such gaiety might help build a positive team culture in the good times, it can be hard to preserve when times are tough.
Blending culture and resilience
In 2022, Innocent Drinks reported a pre-tax loss of £75m just as it invested in its first in-house manufacturing centre, dubbed ‘The Blender’, in Rotterdam. The company reported stronger performance in its most recent filing, but still recorded a £39m loss for the 2023 financial year.
“Any given year at Innocent has thrown up some form of challenge,” Norman says. “That could be growth challenges, Covid, building The Blender or financial performance – but none of that changes the core.”
While we take what we do seriously, we don’t take ourselves too seriously
Innocent’s purpose, ambition and values have remained consistent in the face of these challenges. Still, Norman admits that the firm had to adjust some elements of its internal communication as its circumstances changed.
“While 2022 was a tough year, we still had good people working for us,” she explains. “We just needed to show them it wouldn’t last forever; that we could get through it.”
Norman likens the journey to climbing a mountain: “Sometimes you need to take a break and have a look at how far you’ve come, rather than always focusing on how far you’ve got to go.” Encouraging staff to focus on the bigger picture helped them to understand that the challenges the business faced were only temporary.
But fortifying the company’s culture was not just a matter of clear communication. Innocent also invested in mental health support, resilience training and other wellbeing initiatives. “Some of the focus and investment we made a few years ago will help us moving forwards,” Norman says. “While the financial results have turned around, there will be new challenges that come our way. Having a group of people who are resilient, committed and feel supported will really help.”
A recipe for success
Despite their financial challenges, Innocent Drinks has largely maintained its people policies and perks. Staff were encouraged to mind their expenses and “act as though every euro or pound you spend is your own”, Norman adds. But the company retained its scholarship programme, for instance, which, each year, grants four employees £1,000 to “do something they’ve always dreamed of”.
Although it comes with some restrictions, the fund is not intended to be used on activities that support the recipient’s day-to-day job. Previous winners of the Innocent Scholarship have used the money to learn boat building, become a yoga instructor or develop their butter churning skills.
“We want our people to grow and, while I will focus my energy on helping them grow in areas that will help us deliver as a business, we’ve also got quite an altruistic mindset to growth,” Norman explains. “The scholarship is a lovely example of how we help our people become more rounded.”
Businesses must be cost-conscious during periods of financial difficulty, but Norman believes that preserving company culture should always be a priority. “Maybe you won’t be able to give everyone an afternoon off for a company-wide party. But you can’t just be deadly serious every hour of every day either,” she says. “Finding some surprise and delight through the week is a part of our culture and also part of our brand.”
Surprise and delight can take many forms. Innocent’s scholarship programme has enabled many of its staff to pursue surprising hobbies, and the employer’s habit of bringing in ice creams on a sunny day is delightful indeed for many of its workers. “Those are things we will continue to do no matter what challenges come our way,” Norman says. “If you can bring a smile and a bit of light relief to people when they are working hard, that’s always a good thing.”
“We make healthy drinks. Please buy them so we don't get fired.” That's the plea in Innocent Drinks' X bio. The quip is characteristic of the smoothie maker's light-hearted tone of voice, which aims to persuade consumers to buy its products while also eliciting a laugh.
Innocent Drinks' fun and irreverent marketing – whether it’s through witty one-liners printed on the bottles, or tongue-in-cheek dragon-slaying advice on social media – has helped establish the company as the most popular juice brand in the UK.
Sarah-Jane Norman, Innocent Drinks’ group people and culture director, says the company’s sense of humour is essential in its employer branding too. “The brand is quite light hearted,” she says. “While we take what we do seriously, we don't take ourselves too seriously.”
