Global Brand Refresh & Local Market Repositioning
A global rebrand is more than a new logo stamped everywhere, it's an opportunity to reshape how customers perceive our brand. This project involved leading the localisation of Decathlon's global brand platform for the Australian market, aligning international brand standards with local commercial realities and using the moment to elevate brand perception across every customer touchpoint.
Working cross-functionally with global, digital, retail and visual merchandising teams, the rollout transformed a mandatory brand update into a strategic investment in customer experience, consistency and long-term brand equity, with a very small investment.
Branding
Strategy
Project Management
Branding Strategy Project Management
The Context
In 2024, Decathlon launched its largest global rebrand in decades, introducing a new visual identity, brand platform, and positioning designed to unite markets worldwide under a stronger premium brand narrative and move away from being seen as “just a sports retailer.”
As the marketing lead for Australia, I was responsible for leading the local rollout of the new brand identity across all customer facing and employee touchpoints. This required balancing strict global brand guidelines with the realities of a local market that had historically positioned Decathlon very differently.
Unlike Europe, where Decathlon is an established household name, the strategy in the Australian market had historically associated the brand with affordability and warehouse retail due to a price-aggressive market.
The rebrand presented a rare opportunity to reshape customer perception and elevate the brand locally, so I took it and ran with it.
The Challenge
Rolling out a global brand is never simply an exercise in replacing logos. For months before launch, I had a weekly call with the global marketing team, who were responsible for everything that made up the new brand book and launch campaign.
My challenge was to translate this premium global vision into OUR market locally - where brand investment had historically been limited, and to ensure the rollout remained commercially viable and operationally achievable.
At the same time, I needed to bring internal stakeholders on the journey, aligning global expectations with local priorities and demonstrating why brand investment was critical to long-term growth.
The Strategy
I advocated for treating the rebrand not as a compliance exercise, but as a strategic business opportunity for us locally.
My focus was on using the rebrand to:
Elevate customer perception of quality and innovation.
Strengthen pride and engagement internally.
Increase brand consistency across channels.
Position Decathlon more competitively within the Australian sporting retail market by creating a more premium and cohesive customer experience.
This required influencing senior internal stakeholders (namely, CEO and CFO) and building alignment around the long-term value of brand investment beyond immediate commercial returns. Brand investment can be challenging to prioritise when immediate commercial outcomes are difficult to quantify. I worked closely with both CEO and CFO to build alignment around the long-term role of brand in driving customer trust, differentiation and growth.
By framing brand as a strategic asset rather than a marketing expense, we were able to maximise the opportunity presented by the global rollout.
The Execution
The rollout spanned multiple workstreams across digital, retail and communications.
Key initiatives included:
Leading localisation of global brand assets for the Australian market.
Partnering with global teams and agencies to ensure compliance with new brand standards while maintaining local relevance.
Managing the end-to-end brand rollout across customer touchpoints.
Overseeing a complete refresh of website branding and customer-facing digital experiences in partnership with the digital team.
Implementing new brand guidelines across campaigns, communications and retail environments.
Supporting store openings and physical brand implementation using global reveal guidelines.
Aligning cross-functional teams including retail, commercial, digital and customer service to ensure consistent execution nationally.
Throughout the project, I acted as both brand custodian and change leader - balancing global expectations, local constraints and customer needs.
The Results
The rebrand successfully unified customer touch points under a stronger and more premium identity while establishing new standards for brand consistency across the Australian market.
Key outcomes included:
Successful national rollout of Decathlon's new global brand identity.
Delivery of a large-scale cross-functional transformation project across digital and retail channels.
Improved brand consistency across customer touch points.
Stronger alignment between global strategy and local market execution.
A more premium and cohesive customer experience for Australian customers.
Most importantly, the project demonstrated that brand is not simply what a company says about itself, it is what customers experience at every interaction.
The rebrand became more than a visual update. It became a platform for repositioning the brand in Australia and creating a stronger foundation for future growth.
Key metrics:
Conversion rate improvement online +31%
Instore customer satisfaction growth of 8 NPS points in modernised stores
Brand awareness growth from 36% to 63% during my tenure
100% of stores transitioned to new visual merchandising
100% local team members trained on new brand guidelines
Timeline delivered against launch date