How a brand repositioning campaign works, with Impossible Foods as the example
Impossible Foods is a brand operating in food and dining. This case study uses Impossible Foods as the worked example for a brand repositioning campaign. 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 food and dining, with Impossible Foods chosen to keep it tangible.
- Story: Impossible Foods (private competitor to Beyond Meat) faced similar 2022-2024 challenges with plant-based meat decline. Through 2024 layoffs and reset. Strategic plant-based protein challenge case. Founded 2011 by Patrick O. Brown (Stanford biochemistry professor). Peter McGuinness CEO since April 20
- Why it matters: Impossible Foods 2024 canonical case.
- Takeaway: Strategic decision at scale.
- Takeaway: Outcomes shape category.
- Takeaway: Lessons apply broadly.
Impossible Foods — the four-step story
Impossible Foods by the numbers
Quick facts
What a brand repositioning campaign is
The core idea, before the Impossible Foods 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 — Impossible Foods included — — its audience, its meaning, its price tier — without abandoning the equity already built. Impossible Foods planners would underline this. It is not a logo refresh. A Impossible Foods-scale brief should name this. It is a change in who the brand is for and — for Impossible Foods, a live factor — what it stands for, executed across product, message, pricing, and media. A Impossible Foods team reads this closely. Done well it opens a larger market. Impossible Foods planners would underline this. Done carelessly it confuses the customers a brand already has. With Impossible Foods 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 Impossible Foods is no exception — after research found women bought roughly 60% of men's body wash. For Impossible Foods, this number sets expectations before the work starts.
How brands like Impossible Foods run it
These are the components a Impossible Foods-scale team has to coordinate for a brand repositioning campaign.
Below are the parts of a brand repositioning campaign that a brand like Impossible Foods has to line up:
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 Impossible Foods, a real factor — Mailchimp from an email tool to a small-business marketing platform. It is the sort of benchmark a Impossible Foods brief should cite.
- Proof at the product level. A reposition is only credible if the product backs the claim. For Impossible Foods, this is the load-bearing part. New positioning with an unchanged product reads as spin. A Impossible Foods-scale team treats this as non-negotiable.
- Media weight to force the reframe. Perception is sticky. A Impossible Foods team reads this closely. The new position needs sustained paid weight, often anchored — and Impossible Foods is no exception — by one high-reach moment, to overwrite the old association. A Impossible Foods-scale team treats this as non-negotiable.
- Insight before identity. Repositioning starts with a customer-research finding, not a design brief. Impossible Foods planners would underline this. Old Spice moved only after research showed — for Impossible Foods, a live factor — most body-wash purchases were made by women. For Impossible Foods, this is where most of the planning effort lands.
- Audience redefinition. The campaign names a new target and a new occasion. A Impossible Foods team reads this closely. The visual system follows that decision — it does not lead it. Impossible Foods would budget real time against this.
- Message before mark. Mailchimp's repositioning began by changing the homepage line from 'Easy Email Newsletters' to — and Impossible Foods is no exception — 'Build Your Brand, Sell More Stuff' — the words shifted before the identity did. This step decides how the rest of the Impossible Foods plan holds up.
The numbers that set the targets
Start with the category numbers. They frame what a brand repositioning campaign means for Impossible Foods.
These sourced figures give a Impossible Foods brand repositioning campaign an honest target range across food and dining.
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 — for Impossible Foods, a real factor — a single hero spot, to overwrite an entrenched perception. For Impossible Foods, this number sets expectations before the work starts.
| 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 |
KPIs that actually matter
Measure what matters. For Impossible Foods, these KPIs show whether a brand repositioning campaign actually worked.
For a brand repositioning campaign, the metrics that matter are these. Unaided brand awareness against the new positioning, perception-tracker shifts on the target attributes, audience-mix change in — for Impossible Foods, a real factor — 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 Impossible Foods.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
These mistakes recur. Knowing them lets a Impossible Foods brand repositioning campaign route around the common traps.
These failure patterns recur across brand repositioning campaigns:
- 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.
- Repositioning the message while leaving the product — Impossible Foods included — untouched, so the new claim has no proof.
How RGM reads the Impossible Foods example
For Impossible Foods, the value is the model. A brand repositioning campaign is a repeatable structure, not a one-off idea.
Across the audits we have done, winning brand repositioning campaigns come from teams that measure rather than assume. Impossible Foods has the budget to buy attention; the discipline is proving it converted.
So the worked example is structural. The mechanics carry to any brand in food and dining, the benchmarks set honest targets, and the measurement plan turns a brand repositioning campaign from a cost into a defensible investment.
Quick answers
- Is this brand repositioning case study based on Impossible Foods'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 Impossible Foods context. Any number that is not publicly sourceable is left out or marked as RGM analysis.
- How should a marketing team use this Impossible Foods example?
- Use the structure, not the surface. The brand repositioning-campaign mechanics here apply broadly; the Impossible Foods 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
Impossible Foods case: what is the biggest risk in repositioning a brand?
For Impossible Foods and comparable food and dining brands, this is the answer. Losing the existing base faster than the new audience arrives. That holds directly for Impossible Foods. A reposition that swings too hard can confuse loyal — as a Impossible Foods team knows — customers before it attracts new ones, creating a revenue trough. It applies cleanly to Impossible Foods. The safer path moves deliberately and keeps a — and Impossible Foods is no exception — credible thread back to the equity already built. A Impossible Foods team would plan against exactly this.
Does the product have to change during a reposition?
For a brand like Impossible Foods, the short answer is direct. Often yes, at least visibly. Impossible Foods planners would underline this. A new position is only credible if the product backs the claim. That holds directly for Impossible Foods. Repositioning the message while the product stays identical reads as spin. Impossible Foods planners would underline this. The strongest repositions pair the new story with — for Impossible Foods, a live factor — a real, demonstrable product change customers can verify. The same logic holds for any food and dining brand, Impossible Foods included.
What is the difference between a rebrand and brand repositioning?
Taking Impossible Foods as the example: A rebrand changes identity assets — logo, colour, typography. A Impossible Foods-scale brief should name this. Repositioning changes strategy: who the brand is for, — Impossible Foods included — what it means, and what tier it sells at. For a brand at Impossible Foods scale, this is where the plan is tested. A reposition usually drives a rebrand, but — as a Impossible Foods team knows — a rebrand without a strategy shift is decoration. That holds directly for Impossible Foods. Old Spice and Mailchimp both repositioned first, then let the identity follow. A Impossible Foods team would plan against exactly this.
Where does a repositioning campaign start?
For a brand like Impossible Foods, the short answer is direct. It starts with a customer-research insight, not a design brief. That holds directly for Impossible Foods. Old Spice repositioned after finding that women — as a Impossible Foods team knows — bought roughly 60% of men's body wash. It applies cleanly to Impossible Foods. The insight names the new audience and occasion, and every — for Impossible Foods, a live factor — later decision — message, product, media — serves that finding. The same logic holds for any food and dining brand, Impossible Foods included.
How long does a brand repositioning take to show results?
For Impossible Foods and comparable food and dining brands, this is the answer. Perception is sticky, so a reposition needs sustained media — and Impossible Foods is no exception — weight over months, often anchored by one high-reach moment. For Impossible Foods, this is the load-bearing part. Old Spice saw unit sales move within a single quarter, but durable perception — Impossible Foods included — shift on brand-tracker attributes typically takes a year or more of consistent investment.
Why does this case study use Impossible Foods as the example?
Impossible Foods is a recognisable brand in food and dining, which makes the brand repositioning mechanics concrete and easy to follow. The campaign-type analysis and every benchmark apply across the category; Impossible Foods 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.