milk* media
What we are reading

24 Sep Relaunch Roulette: The Brands That Nailed It — and the Ones That Crashed Hard

Posted at 15:26h in media by
1 Like

Relaunching a brand is one of the riskiest moves in business. Do it right, and you make history. Do it wrong, and your fans revolt — loudly.

Let’s break down the best, the worst, and the lessons every brand should tattoo on their wall before touching their logo, product, or positioning.

The Ultimate Case Study: Old Spice vs. Tropicana

Old Spice — The Glow-Up That Changed Everything

Then: The aftershave your dad used. Dusty, irrelevant.
Move: W+K’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign flipped the target — speaking to women who buy men’s body wash — and used surreal humor + internet-first creative.
Impact:

  • Sales of Old Spice Red Zone body wash jumped +60% YoY within months.

  • By July 2010, sales were +125% YoY.

  • The campaign won Cannes Grand Prix and turned Old Spice into a meme machine.

Lesson: Don’t just refresh the logo — refresh the story. Make the brand feel alive, relevant, and too fun to ignore.

Tropicana — The $30M Packaging Disaster

Then: The iconic straw-in-orange carton. Immediate shelf recognition.
Move: Redesigned packaging to look “cleaner” and more minimal. Lost its signature look.
Impact:

  • Sales plunged 20% in two months — about $30M lost.

  • Tropicana was forced to revert to its classic design almost immediately.

Lesson: Packaging isn’t just pretty — it’s how shoppers find you at 40 MPH with a cart. Kill the memory anchor, kill the sales.

Honorable Mentions — Relaunch Wins

  • Burberry: Pulled back cheap licenses, leaned into heritage, brought in Christopher Bailey. Went from overexposed to aspirational again.

  • Dunkin’: Dropped “Donuts,” refocused on drinks + speed, refreshed stores and app. Now a legit Starbucks competitor.

  • Airbnb: Rebranded with the Bélo symbol and “Belong Anywhere.” Expanded from cheap stays to lifestyle brand. IPO’d at $47B.

  • Apple: Steve Jobs’ 1997 return slashed product lines, launched iMac + iPod, and made Apple the most valuable company in the world.

Honorable Mentions — Relaunch Fails

  • Gap (2010): Helvetica + sad blue square. Social media backlash was so loud they reverted in 6 days.

  • New Coke (1985): Reformulated soda backfired. Consumers rioted. Coke Classic returned in 79 days.

  • JCPenney (2011): Killed coupons overnight. Lost $4B in sales in a single year.

  • Hershey’s (2009): Modernized logo looked too much like the poop emoji. Became a meme instead of a win.

The Playbook for Relaunching Right

Do:
• Keep your memory assets (colors, icons, core product cues)
• Make the change feel inevitable and culture-forward
• Back up design change with product + CX upgrades

Don’t:
– Go cosmetic only — or customers will call the bluff
– Alienate your most loyal users without bringing them along
– Mistake “modern” for “meaningful”

m2 Take

Relaunches aren’t just design projects — they’re emotional contracts with your audience.

Old Spice proved you can time-travel a brand into relevance if you protect the memory and reinvent the meaning. Tropicana showed what happens when you erase what made you recognizable.

The real power move isn’t just a new look — it’s making the brand feel like it always should have been this way. If your fans don’t nod and say “finally,” you’re not relaunching — you’re just rolling dice.