However, not all brands have the same potential for growth through revitalization. All too often, at the sight of declining sales, the knee-jerk reaction is to try to reinvent a brand without asking if it’s worth the investment in the first place. But some propositions are more easily redefined than others. In fact, sometimes a clear proposition can actually make it harder for a brand to refresh its image. One approach is to take a brand focused on a functional benefit, and redefine it around an emotional benefit. With the brand refresh, Dove’s new proposition of supporting authentic beauty appealed to a broader swath of women at an emotional level. The new positioning increased sales of Dove products in the U. Is the category growing, or does it demonstrate growth potential. The brand must already demonstrate a right to play based on existing competencies or equities. Although Johnson & Johnson began marketing a consumer (nonsterile) version of the product in the 1980s, it took another two decades for the company to realize how lucrative a brand K-Y could become if they would just embrace K-Y’s role as a sexual lubricant. In order to do so, the company completely shut down its medical business, rebranded its identity in 2004, and added climax-enhancing gels and Massage Oils to its product line. The investment that’s potentially required to change perceptions of a strong brand may not be worth it. Companies are often better off acquiring or creating a new brand to tap into the trend. In the case of Sierra Mist, however, parent company PepsiCo saw the writing on the wall in the political and social clamor around healthy eating. Sierra Mist--a lemon-lime-flavored carbonated soft drink--was an obvious brand to kick off PepsiCo’s new commitment to health. PepsiCo re-launched it in 2010 as Sierra Mist Natural, a caffeine-free and all-natural formulation sweetened with real cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. In its first six months on the market, sales of Sierra Mist Natural experienced double-digit growth and made up for previous years’ decline in sales. Its hard to grow any brand, like Hummer, that's on the wrong side of history. Market research confirmed that Febreze fulfilled an unmet consumer need. More surprising, though, was the discovery that consumers were using the product not just in the laundry room but in every other room in their homes. P&G followed up with several new products, such as odor-eliminating air fresheners and candles, and line extensions, including a variety of fragrances to accommodate different tolerance levels for scent. Is it strategically useful for developing the company’s competencies. For P&G, Oil of Olay was a key leverage point in gaining a more robust market position in health and beauty. Between 1984 (when P&G acquired Oil of Olay’s parent company, Richard-Vicks) and 1997, P&G almost exclusively acquired health and beauty brands, signaling its interest in the category. The process of reinventing Olay in the late 1990s helped P&G improve its skin-care and packaging technology as well as develop a more sophisticated understanding of how to appeal to women. The toughest part of following any strategy is divesting from businesses that were once successful and may still have loyal consumers. P&G took this step with Crisco in 2001, when prevailing health science blasted hydrogenated oils for contributing to this nation’s heart disease epidemic. Luckily for the brand, it still retained enough equity to attract a merger with J. Smucker, a food company whose competencies were arguably more appropriate for transforming the brand into a 21st-century kitchen staple. Asking these five critical questions can help companies make the right decision for their brand, even if that means letting it die. Joyce Chen thrives on translating insights about human behavior into actionable principles and strategies that drive sustainable design. With a strong research background in user experience and a design planning education, Joyce flows between analytical, detail-oriented tasks and higher-level synthesis and planning with ease. Prior to Jump, Joyce consulted for clients across industries in user experience design and brand strategy. She’s also spent time at in-house research and design groups in Silicon Valley tech companies. They work with companies to create new businesses and reinvent existing ones. Here, we try to bridge the fuzzy border between design and business. We started this site with a few simple premises in mind. First, design is a window onto the world at large, and the culture we live in. When a designer sets down to make something new, she can't help but have some idea about how some object could be so much better than ever before. Massage Oil