Brand positioning / Case study
Landing Merrell's first global brand platform
Challenge
Merrell has deep outdoor credibility, but lacked a single global platform to carry that credibility into future-facing cultural relevance.
Going into its 45th anniversary year, the brand needed a more emotional role: one that connected outdoor participation to a broader sense of possibility, not just product performance.
ONE was chosen to explore what “the outside” really means to younger Experience Seekers in the US, UK and Japan, then develop positioning platforms distinctive and resonant enough to bring Merrell's mission to life globally.
Approach
Platforms
Build the foundation
We started broad with foundational insight. Using online sources, our AI model, Sammi, sourced and synthesised category, consumer, cultural and brand truths across all three markets. It surfaced the emotional and cultural landscape “the outside” sits within today, from Japan's forest bathing rituals to the UK's desire for authenticity and America's growing appetite for escapism.
Shape the territories
From that foundation, our virtual studio surfaced a wide range of positioning spaces. Working with the Merrell team, our expert strategist iterated and sharpened them down to eight distinct positioning territories, each profiled against the target, how they think, feel and act, the need it meets and the insight behind it.
Validate and size
Merrell took those territories to quantitative validation with approximately 2,500 consumers across the three markets. In parallel, ONE's model sized each territory by market against total value, future momentum, unmet need, competitive intensity and brand fit to pinpoint where the growth would sit.
Define the direction
The research identified three leading territories: Destress / Reset, Everyday Lost Worlds and Escape to Reality. Merrell used the outputs as stimulus with its creative agencies.
Impact
Merrell's first global platform
It Starts Outside
Merrell launched the platform in March 2026, the first in its 45-year history. It gives the brand a more accessible, human entry point into the outside, distinct from a category increasingly defined by extreme achievement.
“Outside in the City” took over Union Square in New York, with artist Shantell Martin inviting people to slow down and reconnect. The activation also rolled out in London, Paris and Montreal.
Alongside it, the Futures Program is turning the belief that the outside builds creativity, resilience and perspective into a nature-led curriculum and apprenticeship pathway for young people.
“ONE’s research gave us the clarity to carve out a more human, accessible space in the category — and a positioning we can confidently own.”
Chief Marketing Officer, Merrell