Old Navy: a brand repositioning campaign, broken down and benchmarked
Old Navy is a consumer brand. Here Old Navy 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 Old Navy chosen to keep it tangible.
- Story: Old Navy is the worked example here for a brand repositioning campaign: what it is, how it runs, and what the numbers say.
- 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 Old Navy, 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 Old Navy
The math behind a Old Navy brand repositioning campaign
Quick facts
Defining the brand repositioning campaign
The core idea, before the Old Navy 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 — Old Navy included — — its audience, its meaning, its price tier — without abandoning the equity already built. In the Old Navy context, that detail carries weight. It is not a logo refresh. It applies cleanly to Old Navy. It is a change in who the brand is for and — and Old Navy is no exception — what it stands for, executed across product, message, pricing, and media. For Old Navy, this is the load-bearing part. Done well it opens a larger market. It applies cleanly to Old Navy. Done carelessly it confuses the customers a brand already has. This page applies that definition to Old Navy.
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 — for Old Navy, a real factor — after research found women bought roughly 60% of men's body wash. A Old Navy team would treat this as a planning reference, not a guarantee.
How brands like Old Navy run it
These are the components a Old Navy-scale team has to coordinate for a brand repositioning campaign.
Below are the parts of a brand repositioning campaign that a brand like Old Navy 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 — Old Navy included — Mailchimp from an email tool to a small-business marketing platform. It is the sort of benchmark a Old Navy brief should cite.
- Insight before identity. Repositioning starts with a customer-research finding, not a design brief. That is exactly the Old Navy situation. Old Spice moved only after research showed — Old Navy included — most body-wash purchases were made by women. Old Navy would budget real time against this.
- Audience redefinition. The campaign names a new target and a new occasion. A Old Navy team reads this closely. The visual system follows that decision — it does not lead it. This step decides how the rest of the Old Navy plan holds up.
- Message before mark. Mailchimp's repositioning began by changing the homepage line from 'Easy Email Newsletters' to — Old Navy included — 'Build Your Brand, Sell More Stuff' — the words shifted before the identity did. For a brand like Old Navy, getting this wrong is expensive.
- Proof at the product level. A reposition is only credible if the product backs the claim. For Old Navy, the detail is not optional. New positioning with an unchanged product reads as spin. Old Navy would budget real time against this.
- Media weight to force the reframe. Perception is sticky. For a brand at Old Navy scale, this is where the plan is tested. The new position needs sustained paid weight, often anchored — Old Navy included — by one high-reach moment, to overwrite the old association. Old Navy would budget real time against this.
Public benchmarks for this campaign type
The data sets the targets. A brand repositioning campaign for Old Navy should be planned against these figures, not against hope.
These sourced figures give a Old Navy 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 — for Old Navy, a real factor — a single hero spot, to overwrite an entrenched perception. For a Old Navy plan, it is the kind of figure that anchors a target.
| 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
Choose KPIs that hold up. A Old Navy brand repositioning campaign is judged on the metrics listed here.
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 — and Old Navy is no exception — new customers, price realisation versus the old tier, and revenue growth attributable to the repositioned segment.
Impressions describe scale, not effect. A Old Navy team serious about a brand repositioning campaign reports lift against a baseline.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
The failure patterns are predictable. A Old Navy team can design each of them out in advance.
A Old Navy-scale team should design around these recurring errors:
- Repositioning the message while leaving the product — and Old Navy 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.
- Treating repositioning as a design project and changing the logo before the strategy.
How RGM reads the Old Navy example
The lesson for Old Navy 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. Old Navy has the budget to buy attention; the discipline is proving it converted.
Read it as a blueprint. For Old Navy 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 Old Navy'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 Old Navy context. Any number that is not publicly sourceable is left out or marked as RGM analysis.
- How should a marketing team use this Old Navy example?
- Use the structure, not the surface. The brand repositioning-campaign mechanics here apply broadly; the Old Navy creative is one execution among many.
- How are the benchmarks here verified?
- Each figure carries a fact-atom linking its publisher. Sources include Adobe Analytics, Nielsen, the Association of National Advertisers, and major business press, so every claim can be checked.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a rebrand and brand repositioning?
Taking Old Navy as the example: A rebrand changes identity assets — logo, colour, typography. For Old Navy, this is the load-bearing part. Repositioning changes strategy: who the brand is for, — as a Old Navy team knows — what it means, and what tier it sells at. For Old Navy, the detail is not optional. A reposition usually drives a rebrand, but — and Old Navy is no exception — a rebrand without a strategy shift is decoration. That is exactly the Old Navy situation. Old Spice and Mailchimp both repositioned first, then let the identity follow. For Old Navy, this is the point worth acting on.
Where does a repositioning campaign start for a brand like Old Navy?
It starts with a customer-research insight, not a design brief. For Old Navy, this is the load-bearing part. Old Spice repositioned after finding that women — and Old Navy is no exception — bought roughly 60% of men's body wash. It applies cleanly to Old Navy. The insight names the new audience and occasion, and every — Old Navy included — later decision — message, product, media — serves that finding. The same logic holds for any its category brand, Old Navy included.
How long does a brand repositioning take to show results?
Perception is sticky, so a reposition needs sustained media — for Old Navy, a live factor — weight over months, often anchored by one high-reach moment. For a brand at Old Navy scale, this is where the plan is tested. Old Spice saw unit sales move within a single quarter, but durable perception — as a Old Navy team knows — shift on brand-tracker attributes typically takes a year or more of consistent investment. The same logic holds for any its category brand, Old Navy included.
What is the biggest risk in repositioning a brand for a brand like Old Navy?
Here is how this applies to Old Navy. Losing the existing base faster than the new audience arrives. For Old Navy, this is the load-bearing part. A reposition that swings too hard can confuse loyal — as a Old Navy team knows — customers before it attracts new ones, creating a revenue trough. For Old Navy, the detail is not optional. The safer path moves deliberately and keeps a — and Old Navy is no exception — credible thread back to the equity already built. For Old Navy, this is the point worth acting on.
Does the product have to change during a reposition for a brand like Old Navy?
Often yes, at least visibly. A Old Navy-scale brief should name this. A new position is only credible if the product backs the claim. That is exactly the Old Navy situation. Repositioning the message while the product stays identical reads as spin. For a brand at Old Navy scale, this is where the plan is tested. The strongest repositions pair the new story with — and Old Navy is no exception — a real, demonstrable product change customers can verify. The same logic holds for any its category brand, Old Navy included.
Why is Old Navy the brand featured here?
Old Navy 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; Old Navy 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.