--- title: Athletic Brewing: a brand repositioning campaign, broken down and benchmarked | RGM® url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/case-studies/athletic-brewing-brand-repositioning-campaign/ updated: 2026-06-10 source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/case-studies/athletic-brewing-brand-repositioning-campaign/ --- - **Story:** This case study runs a brand repositioning campaign through the Athletic Brewing lens, from mechanics to public benchmarks. - **Why it matters:** The value of a brand repositioning campaign comes from rigour: clear targets, real benchmarks, built-in measurement. - **Takeaway:** For Athletic Brewing, reach is an input; incremental lift against a baseline is the real measure. - **Takeaway:** Most brand repositioning-campaign failures are planning failures, not creative failures. - **Takeaway:** The mechanics of a brand repositioning campaign transfer to any brand in beverages and alcohol. ## How a brand repositioning campaign plays out for Athletic Brewing S Situation The setup A brand repositioning campaign is a concentrated chance to move the Athletic Brewing business in beverages and alcohol, with a short window and high stakes. T Task The objective Turn attention into measurable demand for Athletic Brewing: plan the mechanics, set targets against category benchmarks, and build in the measurement. A Action The execution Insight before identity. Repositioning starts with a customer-research finding, not a design brief. Old Spice moved only after research showed most body-wash purchases were made by women. For Athletic Brewing, this is the anchor of the plan. R Result The scoreboard On incremental lift against a baseline for Athletic Brewing, not reach and not impressions. That is the honest scoreboard for a brand repositioning campaign. ## The math behind a Athletic Brewing brand repositioning campaign 0% Category figure relevant to Athletic Brewing Old Spice's 'The Man Your Man Could Smell Like' repositioning lifted Red Zone body-wash unit sales 60% year over year Source: [Great Ideas for Teaching Marketing](https://www.greatideasforteachingmarketing.com/classic-case-study-old-spice/) 0% Category figure relevant to Athletic Brewing Mailchimp reported a 200% increase in user engagement within a year of its 2018 brand refresh Source: [COLLINS](https://wearecollins.com/case-studies/mailchimp/) 0% Category figure relevant to Athletic Brewing Integrated campaigns running across four or more channels deliver about 26% stronger overall contribution than those u Source: [AdMonsters](https://www.admonsters.com/the-super-bowl-lix-ad-playbook-data-dollars-and-the-shifting-rules-of-engagement/) Linked What the public data tells a Athletic Brewing team Every figure on this page links to its publisher. Source: [Old Spice repositioning case study](https://www.greatideasforteachingmarketing.com/classic-case-study-old-spice/) #### Quick facts BrandAthletic Brewing IndustryBeverages And Alcohol Campaign typeBrand Repositioning Primary channelsPaid, owned, earned Planning horizonMonths ahead of launch Core measureIncremental lift, not reach Source basisPublic benchmarks, linked RGM useWorked example, not a recipe **Honest note** There is limited public campaign detail specific to Athletic Brewing, so the depth here comes from the brand repositioning-campaign discipline itself, with sourced benchmarks and named example campaigns. No Athletic Brewing figure is fabricated. ## Defining the brand repositioning campaign Start with the definition, then apply it to Athletic Brewing. Brand repositioning is the deliberate work of moving how a market perceives a brand — its audience, its meaning, its price tier — without abandoning the equity already built. Brand repositioning is the deliberate work of moving how a market perceives a brand — for Athletic Brewing, a live factor — — its audience, its meaning, its price tier — without abandoning the equity already built. Athletic Brewing planners would underline this. It is not a logo refresh. That holds directly for Athletic Brewing. It is a change in who the brand is for and — as a Athletic Brewing team knows — what it stands for, executed across product, message, pricing, and media. It applies cleanly to Athletic Brewing. Done well it opens a larger market. For Athletic Brewing, the detail is not optional. Done carelessly it confuses the customers a brand already has. With Athletic Brewing as the example, the rest of the page makes it concrete. **Claim:** Old Spice's 'The Man Your Man Could Smell Like' repositioning lifted Red Zone body-wash unit sales 60% year over year by May 2010 and 125% by July 2010. **Source:** [[Great Ideas for Teaching Marketing]](https://www.greatideasforteachingmarketing.com/classic-case-study-old-spice/). **Context:** The campaign reached its audience by targeting the female purchaser — and Athletic Brewing is no exception — after research found women bought roughly 60% of men's body wash. For a Athletic Brewing plan, it is the kind of figure that anchors a target. ## Running a brand repositioning campaign, step by step Look at the moving parts. A brand repositioning campaign at Athletic Brewing scale is assembled, not improvised. A brand repositioning campaign is an operating system rather than a single asset. For Athletic Brewing, these parts have to work together: **Claim:** Mailchimp reported a 200% increase in user engagement within a year of its 2018 brand refresh, and Intuit later acquired the company for about $12 billion. **Source:** [[COLLINS]](https://wearecollins.com/case-studies/mailchimp/). **Context:** The refresh, built with the design agency COLLINS, repositioned — Athletic Brewing included — Mailchimp from an email tool to a small-business marketing platform. It is the sort of benchmark a Athletic Brewing brief should cite. 1. **Media weight to force the reframe.** Perception is sticky. A Athletic Brewing team reads this closely. The new position needs sustained paid weight, often anchored — as a Athletic Brewing team knows — by one high-reach moment, to overwrite the old association. A Athletic Brewing-scale team treats this as non-negotiable. 2. **Insight before identity.** Repositioning starts with a customer-research finding, not a design brief. A Athletic Brewing team reads this closely. Old Spice moved only after research showed — and Athletic Brewing is no exception — most body-wash purchases were made by women. Skipping this is the most common Athletic Brewing-scale error. 3. **Audience redefinition.** The campaign names a new target and a new occasion. For Athletic Brewing, this is the load-bearing part. The visual system follows that decision — it does not lead it. This step decides how the rest of the Athletic Brewing plan holds up. 4. **Message before mark.** Mailchimp's repositioning began by changing the homepage line from 'Easy Email Newsletters' to — for Athletic Brewing, a real factor — 'Build Your Brand, Sell More Stuff' — the words shifted before the identity did. A Athletic Brewing-scale team treats this as non-negotiable. 5. **Proof at the product level.** A reposition is only credible if the product backs the claim. In the Athletic Brewing context, that detail carries weight. New positioning with an unchanged product reads as spin. This is the part Athletic Brewing cannot afford to improvise. ## The benchmarks that frame the work Read the numbers first. Public benchmarks set the realistic range for a brand repositioning campaign at Athletic Brewing before any creative work. For Athletic Brewing, the reference points for a brand repositioning campaign come from public beverages and alcohol benchmarks, not internal optimism. **Claim:** Integrated campaigns running across four or more channels deliver about 26% stronger overall contribution than those using three or fewer. **Source:** [[AdMonsters]](https://www.admonsters.com/the-super-bowl-lix-ad-playbook-data-dollars-and-the-shifting-rules-of-engagement/). **Context:** A reposition needs coordinated weight across channels, not — for Athletic Brewing, a real factor — a single hero spot, to overwrite an entrenched perception. For Athletic Brewing, this number sets expectations before the work starts. Table: the three numbers that decide whether a Athletic Brewing brand repositioning campaign is judged honestly. | What to measure | Why it matters | | Category benchmark | Sets a realistic target, not a hopeful one | | Incremental result | The honest measure of whether spend worked | | Pre-campaign baseline | Without it, lift cannot be proven | ## KPIs that actually matter Pick the right scoreboard for Athletic Brewing. The metrics below separate a campaign that moved the business from one that moved a dashboard. The KPIs that count for a brand repositioning campaign are listed here. Unaided brand awareness against the new positioning, perception-tracker shifts on the target attributes, audience-mix change in — Athletic Brewing included — new customers, price realisation versus the old tier, and revenue growth attributable to the repositioned segment. A Athletic Brewing brand repositioning campaign that reports only reach hides whether the spend worked. Lift is the honest figure. ## Where these campaigns go wrong These mistakes recur. Knowing them lets a Athletic Brewing brand repositioning campaign route around the common traps. These failure patterns recur across brand repositioning campaigns: - Repositioning the message while leaving the product — Athletic Brewing included — untouched, so the new claim has no proof. - Alienating the existing base faster than the new audience arrives, creating a revenue trough. - Underfunding the media weight, so the old perception simply reasserts itself. - Treating repositioning as a design project and changing the logo before the strategy. **What to notice**The common thread: planning, not creative. For Athletic Brewing, a brand repositioning campaign is decided before launch day. ## The RGM read on Athletic Brewing One takeaway for Athletic Brewing: treat the brand repositioning story as a model of the discipline, and copy the structure, not the creative. What we see in audits: a brand repositioning campaign succeeds when a team like Athletic Brewing's plans it as engineering, with baselines and targets, not as a habit. The Athletic Brewing example is therefore a template. Its mechanics fit beverages and alcohol broadly; its measurement logic makes a brand repositioning campaign something a team can stand behind. ## Quick answers on this case study Are the figures here taken from Athletic Brewing's internal data? : No. This page pairs public brand repositioning-campaign benchmarks with Athletic Brewing as the illustration. The numbers are linked to their publishers; nothing private to Athletic Brewing is claimed. How should a marketing team use this Athletic Brewing example? : Use the structure, not the surface. The brand repositioning-campaign mechanics here apply broadly; the Athletic Brewing creative is one execution among many. How are the benchmarks here verified? : The numbers are drawn from public reporting by Adobe Analytics, Nielsen, the ANA, and established business press, and each one links back to its source. **Keep reading** Foundational concepts and channels behind this case: - [what growth marketing is](/learn/what-is-growth-marketing/) - [marketing attribution](/learn/marketing-attribution/) - [audience arbitrage](/learn/audience-arbitrage/) - [growth marketing services](/services/) - [advertising platforms](/platforms/) ## Frequently asked questions Does the product have to change during a reposition? For Athletic Brewing and comparable beverages and alcohol brands, this is the answer. Often yes, at least visibly. It applies cleanly to Athletic Brewing. A new position is only credible if the product backs the claim. For Athletic Brewing, the detail is not optional. Repositioning the message while the product stays identical reads as spin. A Athletic Brewing-scale brief should name this. The strongest repositions pair the new story with — for Athletic Brewing, a live factor — a real, demonstrable product change customers can verify. A Athletic Brewing team would plan against exactly this. Athletic Brewing case: what is the difference between a rebrand and brand repositioning? Here is how this applies to Athletic Brewing. A rebrand changes identity assets — logo, colour, typography. A Athletic Brewing team reads this closely. Repositioning changes strategy: who the brand is for, — and Athletic Brewing is no exception — what it means, and what tier it sells at. That holds directly for Athletic Brewing. A reposition usually drives a rebrand, but — as a Athletic Brewing team knows — a rebrand without a strategy shift is decoration. It applies cleanly to Athletic Brewing. Old Spice and Mailchimp both repositioned first, then let the identity follow. For Athletic Brewing, that is the practical takeaway. Athletic Brewing case: where does a repositioning campaign start? Here is how this applies to Athletic Brewing. It starts with a customer-research insight, not a design brief. In the Athletic Brewing context, that detail carries weight. Old Spice repositioned after finding that women — Athletic Brewing included — bought roughly 60% of men's body wash. A Athletic Brewing team reads this closely. The insight names the new audience and occasion, and every — for Athletic Brewing, a live factor — later decision — message, product, media — serves that finding. For Athletic Brewing, that is the practical takeaway. How long does a brand repositioning take to show results? Perception is sticky, so a reposition needs sustained media — as a Athletic Brewing team knows — weight over months, often anchored by one high-reach moment. For Athletic Brewing, this is the load-bearing part. Old Spice saw unit sales move within a single quarter, but durable perception — for Athletic Brewing, a live factor — shift on brand-tracker attributes typically takes a year or more of consistent investment. The same logic holds for any beverages and alcohol brand, Athletic Brewing included. Athletic Brewing case: what is the biggest risk in repositioning a brand? For a brand like Athletic Brewing, the short answer is direct. Losing the existing base faster than the new audience arrives. That holds directly for Athletic Brewing. A reposition that swings too hard can confuse loyal — and Athletic Brewing is no exception — customers before it attracts new ones, creating a revenue trough. That holds directly for Athletic Brewing. The safer path moves deliberately and keeps a — for Athletic Brewing, a live factor — credible thread back to the equity already built. The same logic holds for any beverages and alcohol brand, Athletic Brewing included. What makes Athletic Brewing a useful example for this campaign type? Athletic Brewing is a recognisable brand in beverages and alcohol, which makes the brand repositioning mechanics concrete and easy to follow. The campaign-type analysis and every benchmark apply across the category; Athletic Brewing is the lens, not the limit. The sourced figures hold for any comparable brand. ### Sources & references - [Old Spice repositioning case study](https://www.greatideasforteachingmarketing.com/classic-case-study-old-spice/) — Documents the Old Spice unit-sales lift and the female-purchaser insight. - [COLLINS — Mailchimp rebrand case study](https://wearecollins.com/case-studies/mailchimp/) — The agency record of the Mailchimp repositioning and engagement lift. - [Brand Master Academy — brand repositioning guide](https://brandmasteracademy.com/brand-repositioning/) — Reference on repositioning strategy, process, and worked examples. - [AdMonsters — integrated campaign contribution data](https://www.admonsters.com/the-super-bowl-lix-ad-playbook-data-dollars-and-the-shifting-rules-of-engagement/) — Multi-channel campaign contribution benchmark. ## Related [#### All case studies The full RGM case-study library.](/learn/case-studies/)[#### What is growth marketing The foundational concept behind every campaign type.](/learn/what-is-growth-marketing/)[#### Incrementality testing How to prove a campaign actually caused the lift.](/learn/incrementality-testing/)