Five brand repositionings that worked

ChrisRubinCreativ Editorial · 2025 · updated 2026-09-25

Whether it's admitting flaws like Domino's, or redefining beauty standards like Dove, each of these five brands changed what it stood for, and then proved it. Five cases:

• Domino's Pizza overhauled its recipe after harsh criticism, and same-store sales jumped 14.3% in a quarter.
• Dove shifted to real, unretouched people, and Unilever has said the brand's sales went from about $2.5 billion to $4 billion in the campaign's first decade.
• Starbucks created a "third place" between home and work, and grew to more than 30,000 stores.
• Spotify bet on podcasts in 2019, and the pandemic proved the bet.
• Old Spice used humor to roughly double body wash sales in a matter of months.

Each story turns on transparency, an emotional connection, or a bold change; the best turn on all three.

Domino's Pizza: turning bad reviews into better business

The problem

By the late 2000s, Domino's was in a tough spot. Customers were vocal: the crust was "cardboard-like," the sauce too sweet, the cheese artificial. A 2009 consumer survey ranked Domino's alongside Chuck E. Cheese for worst-tasting pizza. Domino's put the harshest reviews in front of its own employees, on camera.

The solution

Domino's didn't shy away from the criticism. In 2009 it launched the "Pizza Turnaround" campaign, openly admitting the pizza wasn't up to par and promising change. The company used customer feedback to reformulate the sauce, redesign the crust and improve the cheese blend, and it featured real customer complaints in its own ads, including this one:

"Domino's crust tastes like cardboard and their sauce tastes like ketchup. Honestly, you couldn't pay me to eat it once it gets there."

Alongside the recipe, Domino's rebuilt its online ordering and introduced the pizza tracker, which let customers watch an order move from the kitchen to their door.

Dove: changing beauty standards with real people

The problem

Before 2004, Dove struggled to connect with young women, a key demographic drifting to competitors. Research commissioned by Dove found that only 2% of women described themselves as beautiful, and most found it hard to relate to the beauty advertising they saw.

The solution

In 2004 Dove launched the "Campaign for Real Beauty," which flipped the script: real, unretouched women of all shapes, sizes, ages and backgrounds in place of conventional models, and messaging that moved from fixing imperfections to embracing individuality. The brand also rebalanced its marketing budget toward brand-building rather than short-term sales advertising.

Starbucks: from bean retailer to coffeehouse

The problem

In its early days Starbucks sold beans and equipment, not brewed coffee, and had no distinct identity or customer experience. The repositioning here was of the whole business: a retailer became a place. When Howard Schultz joined, his vision, a "third place" between home and work where people could relax and connect, clashed with the founders' preference for the existing model.

The solution

Schultz tested the Italian coffeehouse concept in his own venture, Il Giornale, then acquired Starbucks and merged the two. Stores were redesigned around the coffeehouse feel, with curated music and a consistent experience across locations. The menu grew beyond coffee. Free Wi-Fi turned the stores into workplaces for students, professionals and freelancers.

"Success is not sustainable if it is defined by how big you become. Large numbers that once captivated me—40,000 stores—are not what matter. The only number that matters is 'one'. One cup. One customer. One partner. One experience at a time."

Spotify: growing beyond music streaming

The problem

Spotify was a music app in a market where the labels set the price of the product. Growth depended on a catalog every competitor could also license. CEO Daniel Ek's answer, announced in February 2019, was to make Spotify the home of all audio, with podcasts the company could own outright.

The solution

Spotify bought Gimlet Media and Anchor in February 2019, Parcast a month later, The Ringer in February 2020 and Megaphone in November 2020, and signed exclusive deals including The Joe Rogan Experience in 2020. Then the pandemic wiped out commutes, and Spotify leaned further into original content, wellness programming and social listening features for people at home.

Old Spice: winning young customers with comedy

The problem

By the early 2000s Old Spice had an image problem. Once a household name, it now read as a brand for older generations; younger men chose Axe. Sales were flat and market share was shrinking.

The solution

With Wieden+Kennedy, Old Spice launched "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" in 2010. Isaiah Mustafa's over-the-top Old Spice Guy spoke to men's wish for confidence and to the women who often buy the product. The campaign went online with personalized video replies to fans, then continued in 2013 with Terry Crews and "Smell is Power."

What these stories teach

Honesty works

Domino's admitted its pizza was bad and showed the work of fixing it. Patagonia's 2011 "Don't Buy This Jacket" ad asked customers to think about the environmental cost of a purchase, and the honesty sold jackets.

Connect to something bigger

The repositionings that last tap customers' deeper values. Dove challenged a beauty standard. The caveat: customers spot hollow cause marketing at once. Brands like Ben & Jerry's and TOMS get away with it because the cause was there before the marketing.

Bold changes pay off

Companies that made sweeping changes reimagined their identity rather than tweaking their image. Old Spice, Starbucks and Spotify each risked the brand they had for the brand they wanted, and each rethought what customers actually wanted before rethinking anything else.

Most of the upside sits on the far side of the risk.