--- title: Hers as a brand repositioning campaign case study: mechanics and numbers | RGM® url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/case-studies/hers-brand-repositioning-campaign/ updated: 2026-06-10 source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/case-studies/hers-brand-repositioning-campaign/ --- - **Story:** Here the brand repositioning campaign type is examined with Hers as the concrete reference point. - **Why it matters:** Treated well, a brand repositioning campaign is a planning discipline first and a creative exercise second. - **Takeaway:** The mechanics of a brand repositioning campaign transfer to any brand in its category. - **Takeaway:** For Hers, 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. ## How a brand repositioning campaign plays out for Hers S Situation The opportunity A brand repositioning campaign is a concentrated chance to move the Hers business in its category, with a short window and high stakes. T Task What had to happen Turn attention into measurable demand for Hers: plan the mechanics, set targets against category benchmarks, and build in the measurement. A Action How it runs 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 Hers, this is the anchor of the plan. R Result How it is judged On incremental lift against a baseline for Hers, not reach and not impressions. That is the honest scoreboard for a brand repositioning campaign. ## The math behind a Hers brand repositioning campaign 0% Benchmark a Hers plan should cite 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% Benchmark a Hers plan should cite 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% What the public data tells a Hers team 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 A planning anchor for Hers 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 BrandHers IndustryIts Category 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 Hers, so the depth here comes from the brand repositioning-campaign discipline itself, with sourced benchmarks and named example campaigns. No Hers figure is fabricated. ## Defining the brand repositioning campaign Here is the short version for Hers. 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 Hers, a live factor — — its audience, its meaning, its price tier — without abandoning the equity already built. Hers planners would underline this. It is not a logo refresh. That holds directly for Hers. It is a change in who the brand is for and — for Hers, a live factor — what it stands for, executed across product, message, pricing, and media. A Hers-scale brief should name this. Done well it opens a larger market. That is exactly the Hers situation. Done carelessly it confuses the customers a brand already has. For Hers, it is the specific lever this page examines. **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 — Hers included — after research found women bought roughly 60% of men's body wash. It is the sort of benchmark a Hers brief should cite. ## Running a brand repositioning campaign, step by step A brand repositioning campaign has working parts. For Hers, they all have to mesh. For Hers, 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]](https://wearecollins.com/case-studies/mailchimp/). **Context:** The refresh, built with the design agency COLLINS, repositioned — Hers included — Mailchimp from an email tool to a small-business marketing platform. It is the sort of benchmark a Hers brief should cite. 1. **Insight before identity.** Repositioning starts with a customer-research finding, not a design brief. Hers planners would underline this. Old Spice moved only after research showed — and Hers is no exception — most body-wash purchases were made by women. A Hers-scale team treats this as non-negotiable. 2. **Audience redefinition.** The campaign names a new target and a new occasion. For a brand at Hers scale, this is where the plan is tested. The visual system follows that decision — it does not lead it. Hers planners flag this as a make-or-break detail. 3. **Message before mark.** Mailchimp's repositioning began by changing the homepage line from 'Easy Email Newsletters' to — Hers included — 'Build Your Brand, Sell More Stuff' — the words shifted before the identity did. For a brand like Hers, getting this wrong is expensive. 4. **Proof at the product level.** A reposition is only credible if the product backs the claim. For Hers, the detail is not optional. New positioning with an unchanged product reads as spin. For Hers, this is where most of the planning effort lands. 5. **Media weight to force the reframe.** Perception is sticky. For a brand at Hers scale, this is where the plan is tested. The new position needs sustained paid weight, often anchored — and Hers is no exception — by one high-reach moment, to overwrite the old association. For a brand like Hers, getting this wrong is expensive. ## The benchmarks that frame the work The data sets the targets. A brand repositioning campaign for Hers should be planned against these figures, not against hope. A Hers team setting brand repositioning campaign targets needs the category data first. The numbers below are public and linked. **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 — Hers included — a single hero spot, to overwrite an entrenched perception. It is the sort of benchmark a Hers brief should cite. Table: the three numbers that decide whether a Hers brand repositioning campaign is judged honestly. | What to measure | Why it matters | | Pre-campaign baseline | Without it, lift cannot be proven | | Category benchmark | Sets a realistic target, not a hopeful one | | Incremental result | The honest measure of whether spend worked | ## The metrics worth tracking Measure what matters. For Hers, these KPIs show whether a brand repositioning campaign actually worked. 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 — Hers included — new customers, price realisation versus the old tier, and revenue growth attributable to the repositioned segment. For Hers, reach is the start of the measurement question, not the answer. Incremental lift is the answer. ## Common mistakes and how to avoid them Failure has a shape. For Hers, the four errors below are the ones worth pre-empting. These failure patterns recur across brand repositioning campaigns: - Underfunding the media weight, so the old perception simply reasserts itself. - Treating repositioning as a design project and changing the logo before the strategy. - Repositioning the message while leaving the product — Hers included — untouched, so the new claim has no proof. - Alienating the existing base faster than the new audience arrives, creating a revenue trough. **What to notice**The common thread: planning, not creative. For Hers, a brand repositioning campaign is decided before launch day. ## How RGM reads the Hers example If a Hers team keeps one thing: borrow the brand repositioning campaign structure, not the specific execution. What we see in audits: a brand repositioning campaign succeeds when a team like Hers's plans it as engineering, with baselines and targets, not as a habit. The point is transfer. A brand repositioning campaign for Hers or any its category brand is defensible only when the numbers are planned and proven. ## Quick answers on this case study Is this brand repositioning case study based on Hers's own reported results? : No. The figures are public industry benchmarks for brand repositioning campaigns, each sourced and linked. They show how the campaign type works, set against the Hers context. Any number that is not publicly sourceable is left out or marked as RGM analysis. What should a team take from this Hers brand repositioning case study? : Read it as a model, not a recipe. The mechanics and benchmarks transfer; the exact creative does not. Use it to pressure-test a brand repositioning plan against how the discipline actually works. 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. **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 What is the difference between a rebrand and brand repositioning? A rebrand changes identity assets — logo, colour, typography. For Hers, the detail is not optional. Repositioning changes strategy: who the brand is for, — Hers included — what it means, and what tier it sells at. Hers planners would underline this. A reposition usually drives a rebrand, but — Hers included — a rebrand without a strategy shift is decoration. Hers planners would underline this. Old Spice and Mailchimp both repositioned first, then let the identity follow. Hers case: where does a repositioning campaign start? It starts with a customer-research insight, not a design brief. A Hers team reads this closely. Old Spice repositioned after finding that women — as a Hers team knows — bought roughly 60% of men's body wash. It applies cleanly to Hers. The insight names the new audience and occasion, and every — Hers included — later decision — message, product, media — serves that finding. How long does a brand repositioning take to show results? Perception is sticky, so a reposition needs sustained media — as a Hers team knows — weight over months, often anchored by one high-reach moment. It applies cleanly to Hers. Old Spice saw unit sales move within a single quarter, but durable perception — for Hers, a live factor — shift on brand-tracker attributes typically takes a year or more of consistent investment. The same logic holds for any its category brand, Hers included. What is the biggest risk in repositioning a brand? For Hers and comparable its category brands, this is the answer. Losing the existing base faster than the new audience arrives. For a brand at Hers scale, this is where the plan is tested. A reposition that swings too hard can confuse loyal — for Hers, a live factor — customers before it attracts new ones, creating a revenue trough. Hers planners would underline this. The safer path moves deliberately and keeps a — Hers included — credible thread back to the equity already built. Hers case: does the product have to change during a reposition? For Hers and comparable its category brands, this is the answer. Often yes, at least visibly. That holds directly for Hers. A new position is only credible if the product backs the claim. For Hers, this is the load-bearing part. Repositioning the message while the product stays identical reads as spin. It applies cleanly to Hers. The strongest repositions pair the new story with — and Hers is no exception — a real, demonstrable product change customers can verify. A Hers team would plan against exactly this. What makes Hers a useful example for this campaign type? Hers 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; Hers 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/)