Case Study: How ONE Strategy Studio Helped Merrell Build Its Global Brand Platform, ‘It Starts Outside’
- case study
- Brand Research
- Artificial Intelligence
- Qual-Quant Hybrid
- Creative Testing
- Communications Testing
- Innovation Research
- Insight Activation
Merrell, the outdoor footwear brand, was approaching its 45th anniversary without a global brand platform. The outdoor category was becoming increasingly focused on extreme achievement, but Merrell wanted to build a more emotional and culturally relevant position. The goal was to connect outdoor participation with broader human meaning. Previous approaches had not created a clear global direction that could engage younger Experience Seekers across markets such as the US, UK and Japan.
ONE Strategy Studio was brought in to explore what ‘the outside’ meant to younger Experience Seekers across these three markets. Using AI models alongside category and consumer inputs, ONE combined emotional, cultural and brand insights to uncover key themes. These insights shaped an iterative process that created multiple positioning territories, which were refined into eight platforms for testing. ONE then assessed each territory by market, looking at total value, future momentum, unmet needs, competitive intensity and brand fit. This work ran alongside Merrell’s quantitative validation study of around 2,500 consumers across the three markets.
The research identified three leading territories — Destress/Reset, Everyday Lost Worlds and Escape to Reality. These informed campaign ideas and positioning statements that were tested with Merrell’s creative agencies. The resulting global brand platform, It Starts Outside, launched in March 2026. The launch included activations across New York, London, Paris and Montreal, as well as a nature-led Futures Program for young people.
“Without the critical consumer-research work we did with ONE, we wouldn’t have arrived at a message that clearly separates us in a category that’s increasingly defined by extreme achievement” — Richard McLeod, Chief Marketing Officer, Merrell.
Read the full version of this case study on the ONE Strategy Studio website here.
