How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders 2009 BY ADAM MORGAN
Idea #1: Market leaders are a force to be reckoned with, but emerging brands can still pose a challenge.
Idea #2: Challenger brands have to contend with increasingly skeptical, distracted and stressed-out consumers.
Idea #3: The boundaries between different products are blurring, thereby increasing competition.
Idea #4: The lack of experience common to many challenger brands allows them to ask essential questions. 8 credos of describe how challenger brands tend to behave: Intelligent naivety (Swatch), Lighthouse identity, Take Thought Leadership of the Category (Body Shop), Create Symbols of Re-evaluation (Gateway 2000), Sacrifice (Saturn), Overcommit, Using Communications and Publicity to Enter Social Culture (Energizer), Become Idea-Centered, Not Consumer-Centered.
Idea #5: Strong values and emotional relationships with customers are vital for challenger brands.
Idea #6: Habits tend to dictate consumption, but powerful symbols can change that.
The key message:
Brands don’t have to give in just because they aren’t number one in the market. While there are certainly obstacles facing small and ambitious companies, they also have advantages that other, more experienced brands don’t enjoy. Limit yourself to two marketing actions. Being #1 means thinking like #2.
Brands don’t have to give in just because they aren’t number one in the market. While there are certainly obstacles facing small and ambitious companies, they also have advantages that other, more experienced brands don’t enjoy. Limit yourself to two marketing actions. Being #1 means thinking like #2.
