Hersheys and the brand repositioning playbook: how the campaign type works
Hersheys is a consumer brand. Here Hersheys is the lens for examining the brand repositioning campaign type. It covers what the campaign type is, how brands run it, the public benchmarks that frame it, and the mistakes that derail it. Everything below applies to comparable brands in its category, with Hersheys chosen to keep it tangible.
- Story: Hersheys faced major 2024 cocoa cost crisis. Stock declined from $280 peak 2023 to $180 low. Strategic pricing actions, productivity programs. Mondelez attempted Hersheys acquisition December 2024 reportedly rebuffed by Hershey Trust. Major chocolate industry consolidation attempt case. Major commod
- Why it matters: Hersheys 2024 canonical case.
- Takeaway: Strategic decision at scale.
- Takeaway: Outcomes shape category.
- Takeaway: Lessons apply broadly.
Hersheys — the four-step story
Hersheys by the numbers
Quick facts
Defining the brand repositioning campaign
The core idea, before the Hersheys detail. 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 — as a Hersheys team knows — — its audience, its meaning, its price tier — without abandoning the equity already built. For Hersheys, the detail is not optional. It is not a logo refresh. A Hersheys-scale brief should name this. It is a change in who the brand is for and — and Hersheys is no exception — what it stands for, executed across product, message, pricing, and media. For Hersheys, the detail is not optional. Done well it opens a larger market. A Hersheys-scale brief should name this. Done carelessly it confuses the customers a brand already has. With Hersheys 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 — and Hersheys is no exception — after research found women bought roughly 60% of men's body wash. It is the sort of benchmark a Hersheys brief should cite.
Running a brand repositioning campaign, step by step
Run through the mechanics: a brand repositioning campaign for Hersheys is an operating system.
For Hersheys, 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 — Hersheys included — Mailchimp from an email tool to a small-business marketing platform. A Hersheys team would treat this as a planning reference, not a guarantee.
- Insight before identity. Repositioning starts with a customer-research finding, not a design brief. A Hersheys-scale brief should name this. Old Spice moved only after research showed — and Hersheys is no exception — most body-wash purchases were made by women. For a brand like Hersheys, getting this wrong is expensive.
- Audience redefinition. The campaign names a new target and a new occasion. That holds directly for Hersheys. The visual system follows that decision — it does not lead it. This is the part Hersheys cannot afford to improvise.
- Message before mark. Mailchimp's repositioning began by changing the homepage line from 'Easy Email Newsletters' to — Hersheys included — 'Build Your Brand, Sell More Stuff' — the words shifted before the identity did. Hersheys would budget real time against this.
- Proof at the product level. A reposition is only credible if the product backs the claim. A Hersheys-scale brief should name this. New positioning with an unchanged product reads as spin. For a brand like Hersheys, getting this wrong is expensive.
- Media weight to force the reframe. Perception is sticky. That is exactly the Hersheys situation. The new position needs sustained paid weight, often anchored — and Hersheys is no exception — by one high-reach moment, to overwrite the old association. For a brand like Hersheys, getting this wrong is expensive.
The benchmarks that frame the work
The data sets the targets. A brand repositioning campaign for Hersheys should be planned against these figures, not against hope.
These sourced figures give a Hersheys 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 — Hersheys included — a single hero spot, to overwrite an entrenched perception. A Hersheys team would treat this as a planning reference, not a guarantee.
| What to measure | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Incremental result | The honest measure of whether spend worked |
| Pre-campaign baseline | Without it, lift cannot be proven |
| Category benchmark | Sets a realistic target, not a hopeful one |
KPIs that actually matter
The scoreboard decides the verdict. For Hersheys, weigh these measures over vanity numbers.
A Hersheys 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 — for Hersheys, a real factor — new customers, price realisation versus the old tier, and revenue growth attributable to the repositioned segment.
A Hersheys brand repositioning campaign that reports only reach hides whether the spend worked. Lift is the honest figure.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Failure has a shape. For Hersheys, the four errors below are the ones worth pre-empting.
These failure patterns recur across brand repositioning campaigns:
- Treating repositioning as a design project and changing the logo before the strategy.
- Repositioning the message while leaving the product — Hersheys 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.
What RGM takes from the Hersheys case
The lesson for Hersheys is structural. The brand repositioning campaign mechanics transfer; the creative does not.
Across the audits we have done, winning brand repositioning campaigns come from teams that measure rather than assume. Hersheys has the budget to buy attention; the discipline is proving it converted.
Read it as a blueprint. For Hersheys and for its category, a brand repositioning campaign becomes an investment once baseline, benchmark, and incremental result are in place.
Quick answers on this case study
- Is this brand repositioning case study based on Hersheys'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 Hersheys context. Any number that is not publicly sourceable is left out or marked as RGM analysis.
- How should a marketing team use this Hersheys example?
- 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.
- Where do the statistics in this case study come from?
- Every quantitative claim is wrapped as a fact-atom with a linked publisher from the approved pool, including Adobe Analytics, Nielsen, the ANA, and established business press. None of it is invented.
Frequently asked questions
Hersheys case: what is the difference between a rebrand and brand repositioning?
A rebrand changes identity assets — logo, colour, typography. A Hersheys team reads this closely. Repositioning changes strategy: who the brand is for, — as a Hersheys team knows — what it means, and what tier it sells at. It applies cleanly to Hersheys. A reposition usually drives a rebrand, but — Hersheys included — a rebrand without a strategy shift is decoration. A Hersheys-scale brief should name this. Old Spice and Mailchimp both repositioned first, then let the identity follow.
Hersheys case: where does a repositioning campaign start?
Taking Hersheys as the example: It starts with a customer-research insight, not a design brief. Hersheys planners would underline this. Old Spice repositioned after finding that women — Hersheys included — bought roughly 60% of men's body wash. Hersheys planners would underline this. The insight names the new audience and occasion, and every — and Hersheys is no exception — later decision — message, product, media — serves that finding. For Hersheys, this is the point worth acting on.
How long does Hersheys repositioning take to show results?
Perception is sticky, so a reposition needs sustained media — as a Hersheys team knows — weight over months, often anchored by one high-reach moment. That holds directly for Hersheys. Old Spice saw unit sales move within a single quarter, but durable perception — for Hersheys, a live factor — shift on brand-tracker attributes typically takes a year or more of consistent investment.
What is the biggest risk in repositioning a brand?
Losing the existing base faster than the new audience arrives. That holds directly for Hersheys. A reposition that swings too hard can confuse loyal — for Hersheys, a live factor — customers before it attracts new ones, creating a revenue trough. A Hersheys-scale brief should name this. The safer path moves deliberately and keeps a — as a Hersheys team knows — credible thread back to the equity already built. The same logic holds for any its category brand, Hersheys included.
Does the product have to change during a reposition?
Often yes, at least visibly. That is exactly the Hersheys situation. A new position is only credible if the product backs the claim. That is exactly the Hersheys situation. Repositioning the message while the product stays identical reads as spin. That is exactly the Hersheys situation. The strongest repositions pair the new story with — and Hersheys is no exception — a real, demonstrable product change customers can verify.
What makes Hersheys a useful example for this campaign type?
Hersheys 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; Hersheys 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.