Blue Apron and the brand repositioning playbook: how the campaign type works
Blue Apron is a consumer brand. Blue Apron grounds this study of how a brand repositioning campaign is run. It covers what the campaign type is, how brands run it, the public benchmarks that frame it, and the mistakes that derail it. The Blue Apron example grounds a model that any brand in its category can apply.
- Story: Wonder Group (Marc Lore food delivery startup) acquired Blue Apron November 2023 for $103M (down from $2B IPO valuation 2017). Strategic meal kit failure case. Founder Matt Salzberg long-departed. Major meal kit industry consolidation case. Wonder building meal kit + delivery + restaurant brands pla
- Why it matters: Blue Apron 2024 canonical case.
- Takeaway: Strategic decision at scale.
- Takeaway: Outcomes shape category.
- Takeaway: Lessons apply broadly.
Blue Apron — the four-step story
Blue Apron by the numbers
Quick facts
The brand repositioning campaign, defined
Start with the definition, then apply it to Blue Apron. 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 Blue Apron, a live factor — — its audience, its meaning, its price tier — without abandoning the equity already built. For a brand at Blue Apron scale, this is where the plan is tested. It is not a logo refresh. A Blue Apron team reads this closely. It is a change in who the brand is for and — and Blue Apron is no exception — what it stands for, executed across product, message, pricing, and media. That holds directly for Blue Apron. Done well it opens a larger market. For Blue Apron, this is the load-bearing part. Done carelessly it confuses the customers a brand already has. With Blue Apron 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]. Context: The campaign reached its audience by targeting the female purchaser — Blue Apron included — after research found women bought roughly 60% of men's body wash. It is the sort of benchmark a Blue Apron brief should cite.
How brands like Blue Apron run it
A brand repositioning campaign has working parts. For Blue Apron, they all have to mesh.
For Blue Apron, a brand repositioning campaign is less one ad and more a set of connected decisions:
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]. Context: The refresh, built with the design agency COLLINS, repositioned — for Blue Apron, a real factor — Mailchimp from an email tool to a small-business marketing platform. A Blue Apron team would treat this as a planning reference, not a guarantee.
- Proof at the product level. A reposition is only credible if the product backs the claim. For a brand at Blue Apron scale, this is where the plan is tested. New positioning with an unchanged product reads as spin. This is the part Blue Apron cannot afford to improvise.
- Media weight to force the reframe. Perception is sticky. For Blue Apron, this is the load-bearing part. The new position needs sustained paid weight, often anchored — for Blue Apron, a live factor — by one high-reach moment, to overwrite the old association. This is the part Blue Apron cannot afford to improvise.
- Insight before identity. Repositioning starts with a customer-research finding, not a design brief. It applies cleanly to Blue Apron. Old Spice moved only after research showed — for Blue Apron, a live factor — most body-wash purchases were made by women. This is the part Blue Apron cannot afford to improvise.
- Audience redefinition. The campaign names a new target and a new occasion. That holds directly for Blue Apron. The visual system follows that decision — it does not lead it. For Blue Apron, this is where most of the planning effort lands.
- Message before mark. Mailchimp's repositioning began by changing the homepage line from 'Easy Email Newsletters' to — for Blue Apron, a real factor — 'Build Your Brand, Sell More Stuff' — the words shifted before the identity did. For Blue Apron, this is where most of the planning effort lands.
The benchmarks that frame the work
The data sets the targets. A brand repositioning campaign for Blue Apron should be planned against these figures, not against hope.
These sourced figures give a Blue Apron brand repositioning campaign an honest target range across its category.
Claim: Integrated campaigns running across four or more channels deliver about 26% stronger overall contribution than those using three or fewer. Source: [AdMonsters]. Context: A reposition needs coordinated weight across channels, not — Blue Apron included — a single hero spot, to overwrite an entrenched perception. A Blue Apron team would treat this as a planning reference, not a guarantee.
| 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
Measure what matters. For Blue Apron, these KPIs show whether a brand repositioning campaign actually worked.
A Blue Apron brand repositioning campaign should be measured on the following. Unaided brand awareness against the new positioning, perception-tracker shifts on the target attributes, audience-mix change in — and Blue Apron is no exception — new customers, price realisation versus the old tier, and revenue growth attributable to the repositioned segment.
Reach and impressions are inputs. They count who the campaign touched, not whether it changed anything for Blue Apron.
Where these campaigns go wrong
Failure has a shape. For Blue Apron, the four errors below are the ones worth pre-empting.
The brand repositioning campaign mistakes worth naming for Blue Apron:
- Treating repositioning as a design project and changing the logo before the strategy.
- Repositioning the message while leaving the product — and Blue Apron is no exception — 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.
The RGM read on Blue Apron
One takeaway for Blue Apron: 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 Blue Apron's plans it as engineering, with baselines and targets, not as a habit.
The point is transfer. A brand repositioning campaign for Blue Apron or any its category brand is defensible only when the numbers are planned and proven.
Fast answers
- Are the figures here taken from Blue Apron's internal data?
- No. This page pairs public brand repositioning-campaign benchmarks with Blue Apron as the illustration. The numbers are linked to their publishers; nothing private to Blue Apron is claimed.
- How should a marketing team use this Blue Apron example?
- Use the structure, not the surface. The brand repositioning-campaign mechanics here apply broadly; the Blue Apron creative is one execution among many.
- What sources back the numbers on this page?
- 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.
Frequently asked questions
What is the biggest risk in repositioning a brand for a brand like Blue Apron?
For a brand like Blue Apron, the short answer is direct. Losing the existing base faster than the new audience arrives. A Blue Apron team reads this closely. A reposition that swings too hard can confuse loyal — for Blue Apron, a live factor — customers before it attracts new ones, creating a revenue trough. A Blue Apron-scale brief should name this. The safer path moves deliberately and keeps a — Blue Apron included — credible thread back to the equity already built. For Blue Apron, that is the practical takeaway.
Does the product have to change during a reposition?
Taking Blue Apron as the example: Often yes, at least visibly. In the Blue Apron context, that detail carries weight. A new position is only credible if the product backs the claim. In the Blue Apron context, that detail carries weight. Repositioning the message while the product stays identical reads as spin. It applies cleanly to Blue Apron. The strongest repositions pair the new story with — for Blue Apron, a live factor — a real, demonstrable product change customers can verify. A Blue Apron team would plan against exactly this.
Blue Apron case: what is the difference between a rebrand and brand repositioning?
For Blue Apron and comparable its category brands, this is the answer. A rebrand changes identity assets — logo, colour, typography. A Blue Apron-scale brief should name this. Repositioning changes strategy: who the brand is for, — for Blue Apron, a live factor — what it means, and what tier it sells at. A Blue Apron team reads this closely. A reposition usually drives a rebrand, but — for Blue Apron, a live factor — a rebrand without a strategy shift is decoration. A Blue Apron-scale brief should name this. Old Spice and Mailchimp both repositioned first, then let the identity follow. A Blue Apron team would plan against exactly this.
Blue Apron case: where does a repositioning campaign start?
Taking Blue Apron as the example: It starts with a customer-research insight, not a design brief. Blue Apron planners would underline this. Old Spice repositioned after finding that women — and Blue Apron is no exception — bought roughly 60% of men's body wash. That is exactly the Blue Apron situation. The insight names the new audience and occasion, and every — and Blue Apron is no exception — later decision — message, product, media — serves that finding. For Blue Apron, this is the point worth acting on.
How long does a brand repositioning take to show results for a brand like Blue Apron?
For Blue Apron and comparable its category brands, this is the answer. Perception is sticky, so a reposition needs sustained media — as a Blue Apron team knows — weight over months, often anchored by one high-reach moment. That holds directly for Blue Apron. Old Spice saw unit sales move within a single quarter, but durable perception — for Blue Apron, a live factor — shift on brand-tracker attributes typically takes a year or more of consistent investment.
Why is Blue Apron the brand featured here?
Blue Apron is a recognisable brand in its category, which makes the brand repositioning mechanics concrete and easy to follow. The campaign-type analysis and every benchmark apply across the category; Blue Apron is the lens, not the limit. The sourced figures hold for any comparable brand.
Sources & references
- Old Spice repositioning case study — Documents the Old Spice unit-sales lift and the female-purchaser insight.
- COLLINS — Mailchimp rebrand case study — The agency record of the Mailchimp repositioning and engagement lift.
- Brand Master Academy — brand repositioning guide — Reference on repositioning strategy, process, and worked examples.
- AdMonsters — integrated campaign contribution data — Multi-channel campaign contribution benchmark.