Vivaldi has repositioned some of the world’s most recognised brands, including IBM, PwC, McDonald’s, Philips, and Dun & Bradstreet, and the 15 rebranding case studies below show how those moves played out in practice. Built for business leaders, brand strategists, marketers, and companies weighing a rebrand or repositioning, this set covers corporate rebrands, category repositionings, and perception turnarounds across technology, consumer goods, energy, and professional services. Each case names the challenge, the strategic move, and what it delivered.
Most rebranding lists recycle the same stories: a logo that changed, a campaign that trended, an outcome nobody measured. This list is different for one reason. Every engagement below is work Vivaldi did. Not observed, not admired from a distance. Done.
That matters because repositioning is not a design exercise. It is a business decision about which customers you intend to win, which perceptions are costing you money, and which equities you can carry forward. The cases below show how that decision gets made, how success is measured, and what happens when it is made well.
What separates a brand identity repositioning that works
Three things show up in every successful case in this list. The perception problem is defined in commercial terms, not aesthetic ones. The new position is built on an equity the brand already owns, not a fantasy about who it wants to be. And the change is driven through the organisation, not just the marketing department. Hold each case below against those three tests as you read.
Weighing a repositioning of your own? See how Vivaldi approaches brand strategy engagements, or talk to our team about the perception that is holding your growth back.
The case studies of the most successful rebrands
1. IBM: from hardware giant to solutions-led enterprise leader
IBM’s brand had become diffuse across a sprawling portfolio of hardware, software, and services. Vivaldi supported the strategic revitalisation and architecture restructuring that consolidated IBM’s global brand expression around a solutions-led identity. The work became a foundation for one of the most studied brand transformations in enterprise technology.
2. PwC: repositioning a Big Four firm for its consulting future
PwC’s identity was anchored in audit heritage while the firm was aggressively expanding into consulting and advisory. Vivaldi’s repositioning aligned the global brand expression with that expanding mandate, giving the firm a brand platform that matched where its growth was actually coming from.
3. McDonald’s: closing the perception gap before it hit the P&L
McDonald’s brand health was eroding despite solid financials; expectations around food quality and transparency were shifting faster than the brand. Vivaldi’s repositioning redefined consumer relevance without abandoning the equity built over decades, driving measurable improvement in brand perception metrics and a scalable modernization framework.
Read the McDonald’s case study
4. Philips: from electronics conglomerate to health technology leader
Philips made everything from light bulbs to televisions, and that breadth had become a liability as specialist competitors outcompeted it category by category. Vivaldi’s repositioning work helped focus the brand on health technology, producing one of the most significant European brand transformations of its era.
5. Dun & Bradstreet: shedding the credit bureau label
D&B’s legacy as a credit reporting agency underrepresented what the company had become: a business intelligence and risk analytics provider. Vivaldi repositioned the brand for the modern data economy, and customer perception improved significantly, giving D&B credibility in the data intelligence markets where its growth lived.
Read the Dun & Bradstreet case study
6. Birkenstock: from “ugly comfort” to style-conscious icon in the US
Birkenstock had a cult following in Europe and a perception problem in America, where the brand read as hippie footwear. Vivaldi’s US repositioning shifted the story to style-conscious self-expression, and the results followed: dramatically increased US sales and brand momentum with newer, younger buyers.
Read the Birkenstock case study
7. Lay’s: repositioning the world’s best-selling snack brand
Lay’s led its market and was still losing relevance with younger, health-conscious consumers. Working with PepsiCo, Vivaldi grounded the repositioning in emotional value and inclusivity rather than functional claims, reconnecting the world’s best-selling snack brand with a wider consumer base.
8. Schweppes: reclaiming the premium mixer occasion
Schweppes was perceived as dated, a corporate hospitality drink while cocktail culture drove premium mixer growth elsewhere. Vivaldi repositioned the brand into the modern cocktail occasion, reclaiming cultural credibility and making marketing investment work against a relevant audience again.
9. Herbalife: from supplement company to wellness brand
Conventional supplement messaging was failing Herbalife with younger consumers. Vivaldi built a growth repositioning that evolved the brand toward holistic wellness, pairing segmentation with a credible roadmap for winning younger consumer segments.
10. STYROFOAM™: separating a brand from a category it never belonged to
The public linked STYROFOAM™ with disposable cups and packaging; the product is high-performance building insulation. Vivaldi’s brand transformation for Dow separated the brand narrative from the disposable foam association and repositioned it as a material for sustainable construction.
Read the STYROFOAM™ case study
11. McGraw-Hill: from legacy publisher to digital-first EdTech brand
Institutional buyers perceived McGraw-Hill as a textbook publisher while the company competed against EdTech natives. Vivaldi repositioned the brand as a digital education platform, enabling more effective sales conversations with digitally-oriented buyers and aligning the brand with the product reality.
Read the McGraw-Hill case study
12. E.ON: positioning for the energy transition
After divesting fossil generation, E.ON still carried a legacy utility perception. Vivaldi’s positioning established the company as a renewables-led, customer-focused energy leader, with communications programs that reached key stakeholder groups and lifted employee engagement.
13. SES: differentiating a satellite leader that had become invisible
SES led its industry and looked like everyone else in it: technology-first, undifferentiated, inconsistent across markets. Vivaldi’s brand transformation unified the master brand and sub-brands with stakeholder-specific messaging, reasserting SES’s leadership in global satellite communications.
14. Harren Group: one brand for eleven businesses
Rebranding “Harren & Partner” into Harren Group meant unifying a partner-led structure into a family-owned maritime conglomerate. The launch covered 11 businesses, 2,400-plus employees, and 22 countries under a single master brand, with internal unity to match the external clarity.
Read the Harren Group case study
15. Ritani: rebranding for the Millennial engagement buyer
Ritani was losing digital-first Millennial buyers who found the brand out of touch with modern values. Vivaldi’s rebrand made it inclusive, transparent, and emotionally resonant, contributing to higher conversion and stronger NPS in the engagement jewelry market.
More rebranding and repositioning work
The full archive runs deeper than any list. Vivaldi’s archive also sits alongside widely cited external rebranding case studies such as Old Spice, Dropbox, Mailchimp, Slack, Airbnb, Dunkin’, Mastercard, and Burberry: Old Spice used humorous advertising to target younger demographics and grew market share with them, Dropbox’s 2017 shift moved from storage to creative collaboration and aligned with a collaborative workspace mission, Mailchimp’s 2018 update introduced a cleaner, modern logo and improved recognition as a broader marketing platform, Slack’s 2019 simplification improved usability and recognition across platforms, Airbnb’s 2014 Bélo logo symbolized belonging, Dunkin’ dropped “Donuts” to reflect its beverage focus, Mastercard leaned on its iconic overlapping circles, and Burberry revived its luxury image by emphasizing craftsmanship and reducing over-licensing. Further repositioning engagements from Vivaldi’s case study library:
- Playmobil: brand revitalization around the Shaping Play platform
- Wacom: repositioning for creative professionals
- Frito-Lay: repositioning Lay’s for the modern snacking consumer
- Frito-Lay: navigating the shift to healthy snacking
- HIMSS Analytics: repositioning as a strategic partner in healthcare data
- Ritzenhoff: reinvention as a design-led glassware brand
- Scout24: translating a refreshed brand into employee culture
- CLS: revitalizing brand strategy for growth
- Revitalizing brand image: modernizing brand impressions
- Revitalizing O2’s brand through innovation management
- Repositioning the world’s most famous snack for success
- A brand refresh for Nestlé’s top pasta brand
- Shifting brand image to match shifting customer values
- Transforming brand identity: repositioning as a leader
Your next step to successful rebranding
Fifteen brands, one pattern. Each of these companies faced a perception built for a business they no longer were: a credit bureau that had become a data company, an electronics maker that had become a health technology firm, a comfort shoe that deserved a place in fashion. The repositioning worked because it started with a commercial diagnosis, built on equity the brand already owned, and was carried through the organization rather than left in a brand book. That sequence, not the new logo, is what moved the numbers.
If your brand’s meaning no longer matches your business, that gap compounds every quarter you leave it open. Contact Vivaldi to talk about what your next position should be and what it will take to own it.
