How a brand repositioning campaign works, with Kohls as the example
Kohls is a consumer brand. This case study uses Kohls 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. The Kohls example grounds a model that any brand in its category can apply.
- Story: Tom Kingsbury became Kohl's CEO February 2023 replacing Michelle Gass. Through 2024 stock continued declining from $60 peak 2021 to $13 low. Strategic Sephora at Kohl's partnership expansion. Major struggling department store case. Multiple failed take-private attempts (Franchise Group 2022).
- Why it matters: Kohl's 2024 canonical case.
- Takeaway: Strategic decision at scale.
- Takeaway: Outcomes shape category.
- Takeaway: Lessons apply broadly.
Kohl's — the four-step story
Kohl's by the numbers
Quick facts
The brand repositioning campaign, defined
Here is the short version for Kohls. 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 Kohls, a live factor — — its audience, its meaning, its price tier — without abandoning the equity already built. A Kohls team reads this closely. It is not a logo refresh. Kohls planners would underline this. It is a change in who the brand is for and — Kohls included — what it stands for, executed across product, message, pricing, and media. Kohls planners would underline this. Done well it opens a larger market. A Kohls-scale brief should name this. Done carelessly it confuses the customers a brand already has. With Kohls 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 Kohls is no exception — after research found women bought roughly 60% of men's body wash. It is the sort of benchmark a Kohls brief should cite.
Running a brand repositioning campaign, step by step
Look at the moving parts. A brand repositioning campaign at Kohls scale is assembled, not improvised.
Below are the parts of a brand repositioning campaign that a brand like Kohls 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 — Kohls included — Mailchimp from an email tool to a small-business marketing platform. For Kohls, this number sets expectations before the work starts.
- Message before mark. Mailchimp's repositioning began by changing the homepage line from 'Easy Email Newsletters' to — and Kohls is no exception — 'Build Your Brand, Sell More Stuff' — the words shifted before the identity did. A Kohls-scale team treats this as non-negotiable.
- Proof at the product level. A reposition is only credible if the product backs the claim. A Kohls-scale brief should name this. New positioning with an unchanged product reads as spin. This is the part Kohls cannot afford to improvise.
- Media weight to force the reframe. Perception is sticky. For Kohls, the detail is not optional. The new position needs sustained paid weight, often anchored — and Kohls is no exception — by one high-reach moment, to overwrite the old association. For a brand like Kohls, getting this wrong is expensive.
- Insight before identity. Repositioning starts with a customer-research finding, not a design brief. That is exactly the Kohls situation. Old Spice moved only after research showed — for Kohls, a live factor — most body-wash purchases were made by women. Kohls planners flag this as a make-or-break detail.
- Audience redefinition. The campaign names a new target and a new occasion. For Kohls, this is the load-bearing part. The visual system follows that decision — it does not lead it. Skipping this is the most common Kohls-scale error.
The numbers that set the targets
The data sets the targets. A brand repositioning campaign for Kohls should be planned against these figures, not against hope.
A Kohls 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]. Context: A reposition needs coordinated weight across channels, not — for Kohls, a real factor — a single hero spot, to overwrite an entrenched perception. It is the sort of benchmark a Kohls brief should cite.
| 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 Kohls, these KPIs show whether a brand repositioning campaign actually worked.
A Kohls 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 Kohls is no exception — new customers, price realisation versus the old tier, and revenue growth attributable to the repositioned segment.
For Kohls, reach is the start of the measurement question, not the answer. Incremental lift is the answer.
Where these campaigns go wrong
Failure has a shape. For Kohls, the four errors below are the ones worth pre-empting.
A Kohls-scale team should design around these recurring errors:
- 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 — for Kohls, a real factor — untouched, so the new claim has no proof.
How RGM reads the Kohls example
If a Kohls 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 Kohls's plans it as engineering, with baselines and targets, not as a habit.
The point is transfer. A brand repositioning campaign for Kohls or any its category brand is defensible only when the numbers are planned and proven.
Fast answers
- Are the figures here taken from Kohls's internal data?
- No. Every statistic is a public, linked benchmark for the brand repositioning campaign type, applied to Kohls as the example. Where a figure cannot be sourced publicly, it is omitted rather than guessed.
- What is the practical takeaway from the Kohls brand repositioning write-up?
- Treat it as a structural template. Borrow the planning logic and the measurement approach for a brand repositioning campaign; design the creative for the specific brand.
- 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.
Frequently asked questions
Kohls case: how long does a brand repositioning take to show results?
Perception is sticky, so a reposition needs sustained media — and Kohls is no exception — weight over months, often anchored by one high-reach moment. For Kohls, this is the load-bearing part. Old Spice saw unit sales move within a single quarter, but durable perception — for Kohls, a live factor — shift on brand-tracker attributes typically takes a year or more of consistent investment.
Kohls case: what is the biggest risk in repositioning a brand?
For a brand like Kohls, the short answer is direct. Losing the existing base faster than the new audience arrives. A Kohls-scale brief should name this. A reposition that swings too hard can confuse loyal — and Kohls is no exception — customers before it attracts new ones, creating a revenue trough. For Kohls, the detail is not optional. The safer path moves deliberately and keeps a — and Kohls is no exception — credible thread back to the equity already built. The same logic holds for any its category brand, Kohls included.
Does the product have to change during a reposition?
Often yes, at least visibly. A Kohls team reads this closely. A new position is only credible if the product backs the claim. For Kohls, this is the load-bearing part. Repositioning the message while the product stays identical reads as spin. It applies cleanly to Kohls. The strongest repositions pair the new story with — as a Kohls team knows — a real, demonstrable product change customers can verify.
What is the difference between a rebrand and brand repositioning for a brand like Kohls?
Here is how this applies to Kohls. A rebrand changes identity assets — logo, colour, typography. That is exactly the Kohls situation. Repositioning changes strategy: who the brand is for, — for Kohls, a live factor — what it means, and what tier it sells at. A Kohls team reads this closely. A reposition usually drives a rebrand, but — and Kohls is no exception — a rebrand without a strategy shift is decoration. That holds directly for Kohls. Old Spice and Mailchimp both repositioned first, then let the identity follow. For Kohls, this is the point worth acting on.
Kohls case: where does a repositioning campaign start?
For Kohls and comparable its category brands, this is the answer. It starts with a customer-research insight, not a design brief. That holds directly for Kohls. Old Spice repositioned after finding that women — as a Kohls team knows — bought roughly 60% of men's body wash. It applies cleanly to Kohls. The insight names the new audience and occasion, and every — for Kohls, a live factor — later decision — message, product, media — serves that finding. A Kohls team would plan against exactly this.
Why does this case study use Kohls as the example?
Kohls 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; Kohls 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.