Do I need to change? -Depends who you are.

In advertising, repositioning is taking place for a number of reasons:

• audiences are skipping TV spots with Sky+ and are learning how to ignore adverts on the web
• products need to change where they are in the market in order to target a specific audience

Some companies are trying to take the focus off their products and place more of a focus on the brand and what benefits the brand can bring to the lives of their consumers.

Crocs are an example of a brand that has repositioned itself in this way.  They have been focused on illustrating the brand benefits, rather than focusing on the product benefits.  They try to build themselves up as a stylish shoe choice, not by appearance, but by focusing on how comfortable the shoe is to wear.  I suppose you can say 'they are making comfort stylish'.

When watching the advert, it is obvious that their advert is targeted at women.  The advert shows the Crocs acting as a loyal friend, this in turn implies that they will take care of YOU (the consumer) by providing comfort and love as well as just being a shoe.

The tag line is 'feel the love' - focusing on the emotional aspect of the shoe, rather than it's physical form.

It is also important to notice what the shoes are actually doing in the television and the print adverts.  They are not acting as shoes, instead they are illustrating the practicality and the comfort that the consumer should/will experience when they finally accept that they NEED the shoe and not just want the shoe.  I think this is good advertising.  

However, it is not essential that all products reposition themselves.  For example, when Gap decided to reproduce themselves by launching a new logo, they soon realised that they had made a big mistake.  Messing with their identity was definitely not the the way forward.

They decided to go back to their solid blue box (image on the left) with 'GAP' written in a capitalised serif font, a look introduced 20 years ago. 

I guess the lesson learnt is to understand what your company is all about and if repositioning is really necessary in order to increase profits/improve the company.  In Gaps case -they tackled an issue that wasn't even a problem to them in the first place.

Another brand that has repositioned itself is Starbucks.  They have gone WORDLESS -by ditching the word 'coffee' from their logo.  I think it's a good idea considering they want to produce products other than coffee... As the brand has become more and more popular, they can comfortably go 'wordless' -without it being a problem.  They still will be highly recognisable.  Who knows what we might see Starbucks do in the future...