Challenger Times

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CHALLENGER TIMES From

TEN WAYS TO TELL A

CHALLENGER STORY

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The Scrappy David 6

The Irreverent Maverick 7

The Missionary 8

The Next Generation 10

The Real and Human Challenger 11

The Visionary 13

The Game Changer 14

The People’s Champion 16

The Enlightened Zagger 18

The Democratiser

The Scrappy David / The Irreverent Maverick / The Missionary / The Next Generation / The Real and Human Challenger / The Visionary / The Game Changer / The People’s Champion / The Enlightened Zagger /The Democratiser

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Yes. The Challenger Brands are the brands that inspire us, the people that we respect and remember, the characters that we are attracted to– real, fictional, today and way back… like David against Goliath.

e live in challenging times. So it is no surprise that the adoption of Challenger Brand thinking and behaviour is now really beginning to enter the mainstream. Typing ‘Challenger Brand’ into Google this morning got 2,610,000 results. There were 735,000 articles written about them last year alone. That’s a lot of people now joining in on a conversation we started over ten years ago... Since you are reading this you probably know a fair bit about Challenger Brands already– it’s likely you either consider yourself to be a Challenger, or feel you need to become one. But just in case you picked this paper up on an empty train platform, or found it in a dentist's waiting room, here’s the old news before we get stuck into some new stories.

Which is indeed where the Challenger narrative begins, but not where it ends. Over the years the Challengers we have worked with have tended to share common experiences and face common threats, and have therefore drawn on similar principles and behaviours in order to successfully compete against the Market Leader. But the Challenger narrative they tell is of course not always the same: much depends on the individual identities of the people or brands themselves, and also on the particular strategic stance that each unique Challenger has chosen to employ. Across the last decade we have indeed met many Davids, yet we have also met many other characters less celebrated in the Challenger conversation. Collectively they make up a new generation of Challengers, rooted in a broader range of classic Challenger stances and narratives, which is what this is all about.

Being a Challenger Brand is not about a state of market; being number two or three or four doesn't in itself make you a Challenger. A Challenger is, above all, a state of mind rather than a state of market. It is a brand, and a group of people behind that brand, whose business ambitions exceeds its conventional marketing resources, and needs to change the category decision-making criteria in its favour to close the implications of that gap.

So let’s begin the journey and start where any good narrative should. Right at the beginning...

Familiar?

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The Scrappy David

The Scrappy David / The Irreverent Maverick / The Missionary / The Next Generation / The Real and Human Challenger / The Visionary / The Game Changer / The People’s Champion / The Enlightened Zagger /The Democratiser

His answer of course was ‘no’, as the went into battle. His weapon was not a woman with the hammer proved. And slingshot, but he did hit Goliath where it although the commercial was only hurt with a simple tool– he told his story aired once during the Super Bowl, it to the national press. Seeing the damage resonated deeply for a generation. And now done to their reputation, and much to this was because it wasn’t just about the surprise and delight of the U.K. press which computer was better. It wasn’t one and public, Tesco conceded and Tyrrells was victorious. corporation against Commenting in the another. Apple took To Call Out The press on his David’s a deliberate stance win, Will Chase as David against Competition As Goliath, style made it clear that this the IBM Giant and, battle was bigger than using some pretty Belief Is Everything a packet of crisps: explicit symbolism, persuaded us that as a "This is another young Challenger, Apple wasn’t just going case of Tesco's bullying tactics. If a to sell us a better machine but also stand company can have so much power up for the good of humankind, protect over what we can and can't buy, our future and defend our freedoms where does one draw the line?" against the oppressive and controlling threat of ‘The Giant Corporation’. And of It turned out that the ‘humble potato course, we were with Apple. farmer’ knows exactly where to draw the As a more recent brand story illustrates line, and has recently sold his brave little quite clearly, when given a choice ‘nobody brand for £40 million. roots for Goliath’. It’s rare that brand news crosses over into news-news but if there Many Challenger Brands start out as his first story is very old news, but inspired so many over the last 1500 years is one stance that will help you to get the Scrappy David. Firstly because it is a was reported in a much-respected is the simple yet powerful underdog tale there its David vs. Goliath. The UK press position they genuinely find themselves publication, and is based on a of victory against the odds. It’s one that were recently all over this story about a in, and secondly because playing up to certain amount of fact, with perhaps a resonates today because it is a binary ‘David versus Goliath-style victory over it is an attractive idea that seems like a little exaggeration for dramatic impact. battle we all recognise– the fight between supermarket giant Tesco’. straightforward way to break into a new The famous battle of David vs. Goliath small vs. big, good vs. bad, us vs. them. category, steal some attention and get occurred some time during the early 4th Originally a potato farmer struggling to an audience on side. But it is of course century BC, and was published a while Perhaps the narrative make a living selling not that easy. Success with this strategic of David and his later in The Old Testament: 1 Samuel 17. to supermarkets in stance depends not just on a preparedness Nobody Roots stance against Goliath the U.K, Will Chase to play the role of David, but an ability to most vividly So the story in brief: surprise success is turned to making force the (often much respected) Market For Goliath for boy in battle against armored depicted in the brand quality potato chips Leader into the position of Goliath. After giant. Original reports talk of politics, world by the thenin 2002 and decided all, this is not about a vague ‘big evil them’ paganism, brotherhood and bloodshed, upstart Apple going to sell his then-niche brand Tyrrells that the underdog hero is fighting, but a but let’s stick to the simple tale. David, a up against global brand IBM in the on the independent market through specific enemy, with a face and a name brave lone figure, stands up to Goliath, a 1980s. The 1984 TV commercial may have delicatessens and Waitrose. However and some well-defined muscles. To call feared and all-powerful oppressor, and thinly veiled the attack on IBM as ‘The the young brand’s growth was so strong out the competition as Goliath, belief is defeats the mightier warrior using only a Corporation’ but Steve Jobs made Apple’s by 2007 the UK’s biggest retailer (Tesco) everything, as is the absolute authenticity corporate enemy obvious in his speech wanted in. Chase chose principles over of your own position as David. sling-shot and a very sharp stone. that announced the ad before it ran. profit, and declined the giant’s advances, What David has, other than his humble but subsequently found out that Tesco And for the scrappy Challenger that does "It is now 1984. It appears IBM wants weapon of course, is self-belief, a cause had sourced Tyrrells through the grey succeed with this stance? Well once a it all. Apple is perceived to be the worth fighting for and a preparedness market and was undercutting his David becomes an established and notonly hope to offer IBM a run for its to confront, challenge and call out his independent stockists by selling them at so-scrappy player in the category, so it money. Dealers initially welcoming enemy face to face. The classic Challenger becomes increasingly hard to credibly a reduced price.

IBM with open arms now fear an stance. retain this underdog status.

IBM dominated On discovering Tesco’s new tactics, and Perhaps David and controlled undeterred by the size of his opponent, And then? Well, as we shall see with could have defeated future.

They Chase threatened to sue, and when Tesco Apple, it becomes necessary to evolve Small vs.

Big the giant if he had are increasingly refused to stop stocking his product, he and move on… persuaded his fellow turning back to Good vs. Evil Israelites that ‘People Apple as the only Power’ was the force that can Us vs. Them answer. Perhaps he ensure their future could have created freedom.

IBM a Killer-App to defeat him. Perhaps he wants it all and is aiming its guns on might have used humour, negotiation its last obstacle to industry control: and self-deprecation to resolve the Apple. Will Big Blue dominate the conflict– all effective stances taken by entire computer industry? The entire other Challenger characters we’ll meet information age? Was George Orwell later. But the story that has survived and right?"

THE

SCRAPPY

DAVID

Success For Scrappy Boy With Sharp Stone

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The Scrappy David / The Irreverent Maverick / The Missionary / The Next Generation / The Real and Human Challenger / The Visionary / The Game Changer / The People’s Champion / The Enlightened Zagger /The Democratiser

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IRREVERENT MAVERICK Stuffed Skunk And Urinal Cause Splash

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t’s 1917, and we’ve now travelled to New York. You are a worldly, openminded, creative type spending an afternoon in the city, and so you head to an exhibition at the Society of Independent Artists. You see a lot of lovely artwork.

You do not see Duchamp’s Fountain, the urinal that the Dadaist, anti-art, pisstaker attempted to exhibit, but you do read about it in the papers the next day.

finally accepted and indeed celebrated by the status quo.

Which is of course a shame. Because, as an Irreverent Maverick, this is not the idea at all.

This stance is all about being provocative, and deliberately setting out to create controversy. The Challenger characters that take on this role have a very serious intent to shock the establishment. They use wit and humour to question cultural or category conventions, challenge the complacency and collusion of those in the mainstream and attract a particular audience to their own brand of counterculture.

It would be an understatement to say this Irreverent Maverick’s work ‘caused a bit of a splash’. The reason you didn’t see it in the gallery was because the curators refused to exhibit it, but you heard about it because Duchamp was forced to resign his position in the S.I.A committee, and the entire art world was in revolt. The press was so horrified by the insulting Of course today non-exhibit that the urinal was described by most as This Stance Is All About ‘an unmentionable object,’ and by only a Setting Out To few brave editors as a Create Controversy ‘bathroom appliance’.

Fast forward ninetyodd years. You are now visiting an exhibition at the Tate Modern in London, where you discover two related things of note concerning the Duchamp. First ‘Shock Art’ has become a not-so-shocking tradition, and second Duchamp’s neverseen urinal (now endlessly replicated) has recently been voted the most influential artwork of the 20th century by 500 selected British art world professionals.

So times change, the mainstream catches up and Duchamp, the great genius, is

the art world takes not taking itself too seriously very seriously indeed.

And in spite of the ‘my three year old could do that’, or the ‘Outraged from Oldham’ pressure from the tabloids, the majority of the art establishment feels the need to celebrate the work of even the most random and absurd Turner Prize winners as ‘exciting’, ‘challenging’ and ‘thought provoking’.

But there are a few categories that do still take themselves very seriously– traditional, British craft beer being one.

Strict regulation, secret recipes, serious county competition and a close knit community of male drinkers in their

sixties has meant that craft beer has not exactly shaken things up over the last few decades… or ever. Yes, part of that very stuffy traditional heritage has been to use weak innuendos and unfunny caricatures on the sticky labels that cover the dusty brown bottles on the shelves of empty countryside pubs but, as a category, edgy and controversial doesn’t really have a place. Until now, that is.

marketing budget, while taking this stance is arguably ‘sick’, it is certainly sensible. In order to compete James and Martin have realized that: “It’s not about how much money you have but […] how engaging and exciting your content is. We get about 10,000 hits on our website a day. It’s a dialogue with fans.”

And it’s not just about Enter BrewDog. A Wicked creating debate. This Self-styled as a young Maverick ‘bold, irreverent and Sense Of Humour, has quickly turned u ncomprom isi ng’ publicity into profit, brand, the duo A Love Of The Absurd, and after just 4 years behind BrewDog is now Scotland's have deliberately set An Appetite For Shock largest independently out with ‘a statement owned brewery, of intent’ to confront and corrupt the cosy world of real ale and producing about 120,000 bottles per month for export all over the world. the broader beer category altogether.

Not threatening the global giants yet, perhaps, but this is certainly part of the “CAMRA brewers seem to operate plan. And a move into the mainstream in a vacuum of taste, of logic, of will be an interesting journey to watch anything that’s fun or cool or edgy” as the brand grows– not just in terms of says Co-Founder James in a recent how it evolves its own bold behaviour but interview. “It’s just old guys with how the broader category will choose to beards and leather waistcoats”. respond.

A wicked sense of humour, a love of the absurd and an appetite for shock are not After all, Duchamp’s legacy shows us just part of the character but a crucial part how the shock of the new soon becomes of the publicity plan for this Irreverent the norm within a category– while it might have taken 90 years for the rest of Maverick. the category to become comfortable with “One of our strategies has been Duchamp’s Maverick ideas, today within to cause as much controversy as most categories it only takes 9 months possible, which for the rest of the has definitely got category to catch up.

The Shock Of The New our name in the First feared and headlines.”

Will Soon Become vilified, the Irreverent A strategy that had Maverick usually The Norm considerable success ends up celebrated this year when the and copied by the brand launched ‘The End of History’– mainstream it first set out to shock. the strongest beer ever made. In case an Subsequently Challengers taking this ale with a higher alcohol content than stance have to work harder and harder most vodka or whiskey wasn’t enough to cause continual controversy. It’s the to outrage, the ‘premium’ packaging way the world turns, and a watch out for around the bottle has been made from those Challengers intent on playing the taxidermic road-kill. Yes, a urinal in an Irreverent Maverick within their own art gallery today is candy compared to a categories. While this stance, like the stuffed skunk on your pub table.

Scrappy David, is a great way to break into a seemingly closed category, it is an Of course, the media loves to talk about extremely difficult stance to keep up. It’s this brand that is so reviled by real one thing to start a debate, it’s another ale societies, horrified consumers and thing to keep it going– and it requires outraged animal rights organisations. serious commitment to ensure you get And for a Challenger Brand with no the last laugh.

The Scrappy David / The Irreverent Maverick / The Missionary / The Next Generation / The Real and Human Challenger / The Visionary / The Game Changer / The People’s Champion / The Enlightened Zagger /The Democratiser

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MISSIONARY Screen Goddess Gives Hope To Millions

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his stance has never been an easy one to adopt. If you were a young religious Missionary in the 18th century you would have left your village- and your friends drinking cider and having sex in the haystacks- to take yourself and your bible off to the nearest port to climb aboard a boat destined for a ‘A Far Away Land’. On arrival you would try to tell people who didn’t speak your language that your God was good and that their God was bad, but that it was ok because you had come to rescue them, to teach them, to help them and generally do some good around the place.

sets out to share their love for their own brand and grow its influence, but also to use their own relevant understanding, category and brand experience to do something big and brave and beautiful in the real world. And so we see detergent companies fighting climate change, tea brands defending the rights of plantation workers and beauty products promoting women’s self esteem– brands not just selling products to profit stake-holders but using their brands to do good for the world and its people.

(The life of the Missionary’s ‘Flock’ was by all accounts not an easy one, either. But as this piece is about the Missionary, we’ll stick with them and to a simple explanation of their role– as it relates to a Challenger Brand stance– rather than get into a complex discussion about religious oppression, cultural imperialism and the rights and wrongs of Missionary movements.)

True to the Missionary approach, when Mary Lou Jepsen decided to help find a way to facilitate and develop education for the world’s poorest children, she didn’t just decide to head off to Africa and politely ask the first person she met how she could be most useful. Instead she started with her own belief in the power and possibility of computers and her own 15 years experience developing screen technology to find a way to really make a difference.

came about she told us that:

Mary Lou’s excitement as she talks about screen technology and laptop development is glaringly evident. She was excited by the challenge that the O.L.P.C. project gave her. And what’s more she was determined to prove the disbelievers wrong.

“my then boyfriend had written an article called “The Other 4 Billion” in 2003 about how cell phone technology was going to change opportunities for the developing world. And it was clear to me from “I knew that it was reading it that the same kind of thing Using Their Brands To Do possible. I knew how to do it. I could happen with Good For The World could see it in my computers– but it mind quite clearly was hard to reach And Its People when I took on this these people. We project” she told us. based the 'business model' on two principles. First, kids It was this belief in herself, her brand and can figure out how to use laptops, the potential of her category to do good and second, we could work with the that kept her going day in day out. But Ministries of Education throughout what struck us most in talking to Mary the world and distribute these Lou was that in those dark hours (quite laptops like text books”. literally) it was the children’s cause that In working out the specific design she was determined to champion that requirements Mary Lou says she gave her strength. “decided against anthropologic studies”.

“It was all about the kids and giving The idea was not to respond to specific them more opportunity and hope in local needs– which would be different life. I could barely sleep past 2-3AM across geographies but instead to design because I was so driven by the image “a laptop that had to work universally”. of these kids and giving them a better chance in life.”

Accessibility was one thing– it had to be low cost. But usability and durability was another– it had to be low power. The Missionary is of course loyal to Thankfully Mary Lou had the experience its own brand but it is driven by a and the answer. It was all about the screen, Higher Calling. Unlike the Visionary, which she explained is not only the most the Missionary doesn’t use its brand expensive component in a laptop but the to confront, challenge or change the values or experience within the category. biggest power hog.

Instead it uses its brand and its category to champion a cause that it cares deeply “I’ve been designing screens for 25 about in the real world beyond. And of years now. I knew a lot about it” she course this is why we are so attracted to said. “Also this had to be rugged and the Challenger that takes this stance– we it occurred to me that it would be choose to engage with their brands as very useful if it could work outside so consumers because we engage with their I made the screen sunlight readable causes as humans. too.”

Which brings us to Mary Lou Jepsen.

So the key thing to understand is that And she has. the Missionary is dedicated to a Higher Calling. It is their duty to spread the word The ‘One Laptop of their own God and per Child’ program grow their church The Missionary Is has developed the of worshippers, but world's simplest, at the same time use Dedicated To A cheapest, greenest, their relevant religious rechargeable laptop experience and Higher Calling designed to be used learning to aid and in the most remote advance a particular contemporary culture, campaign or parts of the developing world by children cause, that until now has lain outside the in poverty, without power or resource, who lack access but now not the ability to realm of their specific church. get an education.

And it’s pretty much the same for Missionary brands. Loyal and When we asked Mary Lou last year how committed, the Missionary Challenger the initial idea for the O.L.P.C. project

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The Scrappy David / The Irreverent Maverick / The Missionary / The Next Generation / The Real and Human Challenger / The Visionary / The Game Changer / The People’s Champion / The Enlightened Zagger /The Democratiser

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NEXT GENERATION The King Is Dead, Long Live The King

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hen Elvis Presley first thrust his smelling aphrodisiac’ that ‘fosters almost way onto the American music totally negative and destructive reactions scene, the mainstream media in young people’. was so frightened Every generation that the gyrating It Is The Duty fears that the next genius would corrupt is somehow about the hearts and minds Of The Next Generation to bring down of a whole generation humanity. Indeed it is that his hips were To Shake Up The the required duty of famously banned on the Next Generation national TV. Current Generation to shake up the current generation, Not only did he have to be filmed from the waist up when he inform us all that the world as we know appeared on the nation’s favourite TV it is never going to be the same again– programme– The Ed Sullivan Show– but thereby precipitating fear and excitement America’s most adored family entertainer in equal measure.

Frank Sinatra openly warned parents that Elvis’ music was ‘deplorable, a rancid Elvis’s ‘unconventional’ music and

moves were as genuinely shocking and threatening to the incumbent generation as they were exciting and liberating for a new one.

to his own young generation of followers– that in part gave him the unprecedented success that went on to catapult him into the mainstream music of the 1950s/60s.

Perhaps the only convention Elvis did respect was that well trodden trajectory from successful Next Generation Challenger to Establishment Leader– a path also taken by his critic, and King of Swing, Frank Sinatra only a decade earlier. Entering the scene during the 1940s Sinatra was not only hounded by the media for: ‘corrupting America's bobby-soxers’ but also by the FBI for being a ‘rare triple threat, a growing menace socially, politically and legally’.

And so it goes… by definition the dangerous and daring Next Generation Challenger, if successful, ultimately becomes accepted and celebrated as the King of ‘this’ one– in music as in so much else.

And it was this combination– so exciting

In the last 5-10 years it is the way we communicate that has been most notably revolutionised by the onslaught of Next Generation brands.

The impact of mobile messaging has, according to many teachers, left aa

The Next Generation

generation of students unable to communicate using the English language– an old generation of outrage that has been discussed with disgust across a new generation of mainstream global media.

More specifically, though, it has been Facebook that has been both celebrated and castigated in the last few years for changing not just the way we communicate– from personal to public conversations- but the language through which we choose to express ourselves and the way we define friendships and build relationships.

In the few years since its launch Facebook has been blamed for singlehandedly

inventing cyber bullying, destroying established communication platform. relationships (by increasing agoraphobia in adolescents, celibacy in adults and The Next Generation stance for a Challenger can be sexuality in children), aggressively and providing a platform comparatively used for hate groups and If Successful, The Next against the Market reducing the attention Leader, or it can be a span of children.

Generation Challenger more elegant way to Oh, and by the way it Becomes Accepted And de-position a number one brand that still is also making email Celebrated As The King has a hold on the obsolete for anyone nation’s heart. By under the age of 18. elegantly positioning Of course, despite all this, it has only the incumbent as perfect for a time gone taken six years for this Next Generation by, but being clear that time has now gone, brand to be accepted and adopted globally it can position itself as a brand for those and across generations by individuals, wanting to be part of a new generation, organisations and businesses as the who dance to a different beat.

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The Scrappy David /The Irreverent Maverick / The Missionary / The Next Generation / The Real and Human Challenger / The Visionary / The Game Changer / The People’s Champion / The Enlightened Zagger /The Democratiser

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REAL AND HUMAN CHALLENGER True Love For A Princess And A Shoe

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rincess Diana's death on 31st August 1997 was met with extraordinary public expressions of grief. She was royalty and she was beautiful– the most photographed woman in the world– so perhaps no surprise that her public funeral at Westminster Abbey on 6th September drew an estimated 3 million mourners and onlookers in London, as well as worldwide television coverage.

princess who refused to be contained by convention and instead deliberately reached out of her ivory tower to connect in a way that was not expected by the people, or indeed entirely accepted by the ruling monarchy.

and the friendly faces that welcomed him helped. But the feeling continued as he explored the building; and experienced the very Real and Human culture that supports this billion dollar corporate empire.

As her brother made clear at her funeral,

People working at Zappos genuinely seem happy. Happy that the Zappos culture celebrates them as individual people with personalities, rather than expecting them to integrate into part of a uniform workforce. People at Zappos are given the power and the freedom to connect and communicate with their customers as they feel it is appropriate– to resolve difficulties and disputes, to take time to give additional help and support or just to be there to listen to a long story about a lost dog. This is not just an eccentric part of the culture, but an integral part of the brand’s strategy. And it works– as the 8137 customer testimonials on their site verify.

ʻʻIt is a tribute to her level-headedness and strength that despite the most bizarre-like life imaginable after her The media– for weeks, months and still childhood, she remained intact, true over a decade on– have scrutinised her to herself”. He continued his tribute death, the circumstances around it, and saying that the rest of ʻʻthe world the monarchy’s reaction to it in great detail sensed this… and cherished her for and from every possible angle. But what her vulnerability has been perhaps whilst admiring her most interesting, You Are One Of Us for her honesty.” certainly from the point of view of this piece, is the ongoing media analysis not of her death, but of our grief. Why did we all, even the fiercest republicans amongst us, feel so close to this Royal stranger, and respond to her death with such an immediate and profound sense of personal loss?

The answer it seems was simple– she was ‘The People’s Princess’. More than just a headline, this tribute came not only from Tony Blair wanting to rescue the monarchy, from editors wanting to sell more tabloids, or from her brother wanting to reclaim his sister from the grip of the House of Windsor, but from the thousands of messages left by Diana’s public– ‘You were just one of us’ one of many cards read.

And it was true. While Diana had taken her role as Princess of Wales, Mother of a Future King, fashion icon and charity ambassador very seriously, she simultaneously took a defiant stance against the superior status that her Royal position had awarded her. She was a

And we did. We expected to be in awe of the glamour and beauty of a Royal Princess, but we were also surprised and intrigued by her ordinariness. We connected with her because she allowed us to see a real human behind a Royal institution. We felt close because she deliberately broke down traditional barriers between a Princess and her public.

And it is for the same reason that we are so attracted to those Real and Human Challenger Brands that deliberately do away with the corporate/consumer divide between ‘us and them’ and instead give the people behind their brands the freedom to engage with us as people not consumers.

When our San Francisco Partner Mark entered the Zappos headquarters to interview founder Tony Hsieh earlier last year, despite travelling all the way to Vegas, he felt instantly at home. Certainly the busted cream sofa in the entrance, the old pair of sneakers by the door, the handwritten notes stuck to every wall

He takes this priority right to the heart of his hiring process.

“One of our values is to be humble” he says. “It’s a part of our culture.

You could be the greatest superstar… hitting great numbers, but we pass on a lot of people because they don’t fit.”

It’s a strategy that has worked, Zappos sold to Amazon in November 2009 for a reported $1.2 billion.

Taking the Real and Human stance is not about adopting a certain voice– although there are many brands trying to imitate the 'innocent drinks' voice across every category from baked beans to banking.

It is about challenging the faceless, corporate competition by making your own human virtues explicit. This includes allowing the people behind your brand to genuinely express themselves and their own identities, to communicate with openness and honesty and take personal responsibility for the products and services they provide… and it means accepting the inevitable, sometimes messy, implications of all this.

There are no scripts, no limits on call times; instead Hsieh simply encourages the Zappos team to take the time to make a “Personal Emotional Connection" Yet the rewards with the customer. for those brands And, yes, this has Give The People Behind genuinely brave meant that one enough to do this legendary customer The Brand The Freedom are immense, for the conversation lasted Challengers who take over 5 hours– a piece To Engage With Us this stance appeal of folklore Tony is to us on a more fiercely proud of. And personal level than the Market Leader. it’s hard to over-emphasise just how at We engage because they are making a odds that last notion is with the rest of the human to human connection rather than call centre industry's notions of optimum a brand to consumer connection.

And as call times and productivity. a result these brands become more than It’s a radical idea to start with an ambition just products or services, but compelling to build relationships, rather than just sell characters in our lives. We trust them product. But of course Tony Hsieh would more and thus allow them to reach us in argue that if you get the first part right, a way that the distant corporate brand then the second part naturally follows. cannot.

The Scrappy David /The Irreverent Maverick / The Missionary / The Next Generation / The Real and Human Challenger / The Visionary / The Game Changer / The People’s Champion / The Enlightened Zagger /The Democratiser

THE

VISIONARY Faster Horses Forgotten In Fight For Automotive Future

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t’s 1908, and you are late. You are the United States– transforming the way sitting by the road-side, your carriage communities organised themselves, how is laden with goods from market, your people worked, lived and socialised– and horse has lost a shoe and your messenger how populations grew and dispersed. is only just back with the farrier. He assures you that the new shoe he is going In the early part of the 20th century Ford to fit is just the thing - not only will the was a true Visionary. His infamous new type of nail stay in for longer, but observation about ‘people wanting faster being made of lightweight steel, your horses’ was not just a damning judgment on the value of horse will be 10% consumer research faster on the roads.

This Character Is A (as it is understood ‘Good’ you say ‘that’s today) but also gives exactly what I need, Preacher Not A Fixer us an insight into a faster horse. And how a Visionary preferably one that’s five years younger, doesn’t go lame, or sees things differently to the rest of the need to stop to relieve himself or eat, category. drink or sleep. And one that doesn’t bite, Incremental innovation that improves the bugger'. and optimises current systems and Back in your carriage and on the move, products is enough for most players in a you pick up the newspaper to discover category, those who share a vested interest that a man called Henry Ford has invented in improving, but also preserving, the something called a Motor Car– with four status quo– but it is not enough for the reliable wheels, no teeth and consuming Visionary. The Visionary is a preacher only petrol. This motorised carriage has not a fixer. Rather than trying to solve every advantage over your beast, save for problems within the category today, they the fact that its only available in black. create a vision of how it should be in the Returning home, you send a telegram to future and then set about turning it into a reality. put in an order forthwith.

Fact check; Henry Ford did not actually invent the motorcar, nor were the first Ford vehicles only available in black. But history is correct in presenting this character as the father of the modern car as we know it. With the release of the Model T in 1908 Ford not only revolutionised the way cars were designed and manufactured, but the labour practices and assembly lines that produced them, as well as the distribution systems that delivered them to the driveways of millions across America. Efficiencies meant lower prices for consumers, and resulted in an explosion in car ownership throughout

oats, steel shoes and lightweight saddles type. It is intended to improve, but also preserve the current industry model, rather than transform it.

selling enough vehicles to sustain itself.

The problem, Spowers says, is simple.

The “business model of the automotive industry and the value But this is not how Hugo Spowers, network which it has created is founder of Riversimple and creator incredibly refined but it is now of the world’s first fuel cell car, sees unfit for purpose. The entire system innovation. Like Henry Ford last century, rewards resource consumption, and Spowers has observed the world’s rapidly we can’t build a sustainable industrial changing environment, economy, and future on this basis” society– along with he argues. its slowly evolving For The Majority automotive industry– “Today, if you and he has a conceived Innovation Is Intended sell cars you are revolutionary rewarded for the car new vision for our To Improve The Current being as expensive, automotive future. high maintenance Industry Model and unreliable as 100 years ago Ford possible, and for the established the Not To Transform It customer to have it existing automotive for as short a time industry model based as possible– no interest in energy around the combustion engine and the efficiency or security. If you sell a sale of product. Today Spowers has laid service, you are rewarded for the car out his own vision for the future– an being as cheap as possible, as low automotive industry based around the maintenance and reliable as possible, hydrogen fuel cell and the sale of service. and for the customer to keep it as His Riversimple model intends to make long as possible.” obsolete the entire system upon which 100 years of automotive industry and our In Ford’s case this vision has been own relationship with car ownership has Spowers' vision of the future is an industry that can align the interests the reality of car been built. of the manufacturer and the customer design, manufacture, Create A Vision And An enormous where they were previously opposed, purchase and ambition but, as and reward resource minimisation rather automobile ownership Set About Turning events of the past year than rewarding resource maximisation. for the last 100 years. have shown, there And, as most major It Into A Reality is clearly something Of course a Visionary can really only be players in the industry very wrong with the labeled such in retrospect– once the rest of today would probably standard car-making the world has caught up and their vision argue, that is because not much, at least in terms of the basics, model. Aside from the environmental has been proved a reality. But meeting has needed to change. For the industry imperative for the automotive industry Hugo Spowers, hearing his ambition, status quo, just like those dependent on to radically transform, there is clearly an seeing the opportunity and witnessing the horse and carriage in the 19th century, economic imperative to do something, what he has achieved so far, it looks like innovation is primarily of the increased as the industry as a whole is simply not the odds are shortening.

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The Game Changer

The Scrappy David /The Irreverent Maverick / The Missionary / The Next Generation / The Real and Human Challenger / The Visionary /The Game Changer / The People’s Champion / The Enlightened Zagger /The Democratiser

opportunities and the threats represented in taking this stance.

Wii is an instructive example, not simply because of the way it famously changed the game in its category as a Challenger, but for the way it is currently faltering as its competitors now seek to change the game again.

THE

GAME Stop Press! The World Has Turned!

A

we mentioned that, with success, brands that initially take this stance often have to evolve and adopt another as they grow and prosper. And Apple have done just this. As a global giant Apple has managed to avoid being labeled the Goliath it once attacked, and has retained its identity as a Challenger Brand by taking a stance not as ‘Leader’ but instead as ‘Game Changer’.

Not content to change our emotional relationship with machines by designing computers so beautiful we want to lick Which brings us to the Game Changer. them, Apple has gone on to develop Because when a products in the Challenger Brand iPhone and the iPad sets out to be a Game that of course change The Challenger Brand Changer it isn’t our relationships simply setting out to That Aims To Be A Game not simply with our challenge category devices, but with Changer Isn’t Simply convention (like its our work, with our Irreverent Maverick entertainment, with or Next Generation Setting Out To Challenge our leisure– even, siblings) but to go perhaps, with our Category Convention further. Their explicit family. Will the iPad ambition is to change be the death of print the way we think publishing? We hope not. We all love to about and experience their category, rustle paper and ink under our fingers, through our relationship with their brand but certainly it is already transforming and product. the world of online literature. s individuals they are all easy to identify– Newton, Einstein, Darwin– Challengers that simply change the way we see everything. Before Galileo proved Copernicus right in 1633, we all believed that the world was flat.

It was once a political and punishable crime to allege that the earth was round and that it circled the sun, and yet today it would clearly be a crime of ignorance to contest that this was true.

So for instance we talked earlier about Apple taking the classic Scrappy David stance against IBM early in its life, and

Yet in re-educating the world about the gaming experience, it also re-educated its competition. X-Box’s initial response was feeble, with unconvincing advertising which positioned it too as a shared family experience.

Before the Wii, the Now with the launch gaming experience was largely about solo An Entirely New Product, of the Kinect, X-Box have leapfrogged game play: intense Service Or Experience, Wii themselves. visuals, intense With three cameras experiential worlds, Wrapped In An Entirely tracking 48 skeletal just the screen and on your body, you. Perhaps if you New Category Narrative points all those plastic were between the nunchucks that ages of 12-18 and too young, skint or lazy to go out drinking, seemed so endearing for a while on you could have mates over to play Grand the Wii are suddenly rendered entirely Theft Auto, but you weren’t inviting your obsolete. Full voice control, video chat; Nan round to play bowling, you weren’t if X-Box Kinect doesn’t revolutionise getting into your hot-pants and sweat the profile of gamers in quite the same bands for a disco work out, and you way as Wii did, it promises a big shift certainly weren’t rejecting that Christmas in its power to connect. Of course, the game of charades in favour of a family development cycles for consoles mean that we won’t see what Nintendo have game of Duck Hunt. as an answer for a couple of years; it may But since the Wii revolution we’re all spin us all sideways again– but for the living in a whole new world. Computer moment, there is a new game in town, gaming can now be a physical, social, and it is no longer the Wii. sport, to be played when, where and with whom you like. It has not just changed As with adopting any of these Challenger the experience for traditional gamers; it stances, becoming a Game Changer is has affected the way people across entire not something you can simply intend populations are choosing to relax, engage, or something you must convincingly entertain and work out. Its reported announce. It is something you have impacts are apparently as profound as to do. This stance, perhaps more than they are diverse; Wii Fit has been used some of the others, is not about taking for the treatment of balance problems in a point of view or finding a new way the elderly, included into school fitness to communicate your story or your programmes, and is used by the Finnish ambition. It is less about identity and military to encourage their soldiers to engagement and more about action and impact. It is an entirely new product, exercise at home. service or experience, wrapped in an Wii’s huge success came from taking entirely new category narrative. an entirely new perspective on the possibilities of a category, rather than And once you start changing the category, attempting to compete head to head you need to keep changing it– or someone with the existing player. By flipping else will change it for you. As someone the conventional understanding about once said, the only way to stay ahead is how the category worked and the to think like the hungry Challenger you fundamentals of the gaming experience once were.

CHANGER

The brands that have this capability– often technology Challengers– typically present us with products and services that not only change the way we think about a particular category, but go as far as to change the way we live our lives altogether, in big or in small ways.

on its head they invited a whole new audience to participate in an entirely new way.

In writing about the new generation of Challengers we’ve witnessed recently, it always seems more stimulating to be able to talk about a few brands that may not, as yet, have had too much of a mention– and by and large we aim to avoid those glaring examples that are already so well written about. However with the Game Changer it is worth revisiting Challengers that have been part of the cultural fabric for a while, because it illustrates both the

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The Scrappy David /The Irreverent Maverick / The Missionary / The Next Generation / The Real and Human Challenger / The Visionary / The Game Changer / The People’s Champion / The Enlightened Zagger /The Democratiser

THE

PEOPLE'S

CHAMPION Unheard And Exploited Find New Way To Communicate

Y

ou live in poverty in rural Mississippi. You are a teenage single mother or an inner-city kid from Boston. You’ve experienced hardship or abuse. You’ve just lost your job, your partner or someone close to you.

Life is, in short, thin on laughs.

But there is good news.

There is Oprah.

us because we genuinely feel that we influence her too. We believe that she listens, that she understands, that she feels and thinks as we do. We believe that she will support us, and that our fight is her fight, and vice versa. And so we celebrate her every personal success without the slightest hint of resentment, because we feel that her victories are ours.

We believe and trust that if we support her, champion her as she does us, we will benefit too.

Best known for hosting the multi-award winning, highest-ranking talk show in history, Oprah For all these Winfrey can also reasons the People’s Our Fight Is Their Fight confirm this year Champion is an easy that she is the richest stance to adore but And Vice Versa African-American of a difficult stance to the 20th century and adopt.

Characters the greatest black that are revered and philanthropist in American history. honoured as the People’s Champion don’t She certainly is a champion.

But for the weak, weary, angry and unheard she is also the ultimate People’s Champion.

simply claim this status for themselves, they earn it. As with all Challenger strategy and positioning, it is action not image that counts. Challenger Brands that are able to find success with this stance don’t just declare it, they demonstrate it.

Brands like giffgaff– the new U.K. mobile network designed to be run by its online community of users.

Both credited and criticised for popularising the tabloid talk show genre, Oprah has not only carved out a role for herself as the public voice of the ordinary We first noticed this and the overlooked, brand six months but has also succeeded in, when thirty men Action Not Image in creating a safe wearing nothing platform for them Is What Counts but top hats, and to confess, confront holding only the or campaign. It is no Financial Times to surprise Winfrey was preserve their dignity, marched along the recently described in Time Magazine as the world’s most influential woman. Serpentine in London and subsequently We, the people, allow her to influence ended up splashed across the tabloid

press. It was a boisterous PR stunt from a new brand wanting to expose the “Naked Corporate Greed” of the category they were about to enter, preparing the way for them to step up as the People’s Champion.

And when we recently met Gav Thompson (one of the brands creators) we discovered that this young brand not only had naked ambition, but a serious communityled strategy for growth. giffgaff was designed from the very outset to service a certain group of ‘Free Thinkers’ who were becoming increasingly frustrated with large, self-serving corporations out of touch with their consumers. The giffgaff brand team recognised that, although this consumer group was small, it was significant and also active.

word of mouth, and initiated by users and ambassadors of the service who are rewarded for recruiting new members.

It is remarkably simple and transparent. giffgaff members are given the tools and the freedom to respond to customer questions, to suggest new products, to write and publish adverts. New customers can choose to enjoy the benefits of a low cost service or to become a member and therefore part of the community and benefit from its rewards.

And so far it’s working. giffgaff has a CSI of 91, and a Net Promoter score only one point below icons such as Apple and Google. It’s too early to say if this is a mass market proposition, but the people who love it, really love it.

As The Brand Grows giffgaff has a So the idea was born clear commercial And Prospers to create a genuine imperative and yet, alternative to the at the same time, So Do The People bigger networks– to has a relevant public harness the power cause to champion. of a community of It has deliberately instigated a debate independent and interested users to run about how the dominant players in the and promote a simpler mobile network, category exploit consumers for their where people would get rewarded for own ends and has not only established helping out. When customers sign up itself as the defender, but also invited a they automatically become members and, clearly defined target group to join forces if they choose, they can become involved to champion the giffgaff brand and the with the network and the running of people it represents. the company– including everything from customer service to marketing and The last few years have a new emphasis communications. for Challengers taking a People’s Champion stance. In the old days it was And the incentive? simply enough (as Sir Richard Branson Brand involvement is rewarded with has so often done) to proclaim yourself the points that get translated quite simply People’s Champion. Now, it increasingly into pounds. So as the brand grows and means being genuinely powered by the prospers, so do the people. Marketing is people you represent; giving them the primarily online, led by social media and steering wheel, and not just the voice.

The People's Champion

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The Scrappy David / The Irreverent Maverick / The Missionary / The Next Generation / The Real and Human Challenger / The Visionary / The Game Changer / The People’s Champion /The Enlightened Zagger /The Democratiser

THE

ENLIGHTENED ZAGGER Swimming Against The Tide Is Good For Your Health

S

ome of us probably believe that we choose our clothes because we like them, not because they are in fashion. That it is just coincidental that our unique taste in music, interiors, art and design just happens to be popular right now, or that the brands we buy truly do say something unique about us, as well as everyone else in the store.

establish not just the category conditions but also common consciousness. And so it is understandable that the majority of brands entering this competitive landscape will quite naturally adopt the collectively held values and beliefs– consciously or unconsciously.

Others, whilst accepting that they are not wildly original, might actually enjoy being part of a common consciousness and see it as something to embrace. Maybe we feel a certain safety in numbers, a gentle and affirming comfort in ‘going with the flow’, a confidence in collective consensus.

As the name suggests, this Challenger has informed, personally-held beliefs about the way the world should be, that are different to those that are accepted by the mainstream. And while they don’t set out to gratuitously change existing category conventions, they do decide and declare that they themselves will not play along.

Instead they use their own imagination, intelligence and self-belief to do things differently. This Challenger doesn’t Zag when the rest of the world Zigs just for the sake of it, but simply declares its own ‘truth’– one we can then choose to accept or reject.

Not so the Enlightened Zagger.

And a few of us, despite our best efforts, might have discovered that there really is no point trying too hard to be deliberately different. After all when we do try to use our imagination– to dye our hair at 15, design our own bike at 20, grow our own vegetables at 30, learn the guitar at 40 or take a gap year at 60– we find that far from Unlike the Irreverent Maverick, this being original we are usually swimming stance is not about sticking two fingers up to the establishment, in synchrony with nor picking a fight our contemporaries.

Swim Against David–style. It is not about a Missionary Whatever our own The Tide cause that the brand experience, we'd all is proactively fighting probably agree that it’s not just imagination, but determination for nor, like the Game Changer, about and a huge amount of self belief that is setting the agenda for the future. In fact required to successfully swim against it is often about resisting change and the subtle but persuasive force of the defending values now seemingly lost, a prevailing cultural tide. And of course it’s deliberate rejection of current category the same in the brand world. The dominant trends, behaviours and beliefs. forces within any given category will

The Enlightened Zagger declares: ‘I know the world thinks this but I don’t’.

claim ‘extra power’ and dramatising the benefits of a product... ‘now with added …’ And obsession with progress perhaps and finding new and better solutions to existing problems is understandable, and in fact necessary. This is science, after all.

One young Challenger doing just this is Help Remedies; a small online healthcare company that sells simple health Rich says no. remedies and medical necessities. What is so different about this pharmaceutical At Help Remedies “...we simply use company is that it is clearly driven by the best ingredients some very simple for this or that principles. Principles that Co-Founder Rich "I Know The World Thinks condition. We don’t need to make it Fine was happy to ‘extra strength’ share when we went This But I Don't" and all those crazy to see him last year. things. We just have a product called ‘help I have The first two of five principles proudly a headache’ and then if you have displayed on their website are: a headache this product will work 1. To actually help people for you. We are not going to invent something with an insignificant 2. To be honest difference in order to tell people we did something new vs. using what So we ask Rich whether they really think actually works in it's simplest form.” that the rest of the healthcare category Instead Rich believes “...we should lies and doesn’t help people? And he celebrate the things that really work replies diplomatically but decidedly: and make them available, acceptable and approachable.”

“The way people think about medicine is wrong. Innovation in But it’s not just newness, and overstated medicine is wrong. It’s all [about] new claims that Help Remedies resists. It is combinations, new bits of science, also that industry convention which tries new development, new development, to sell to us both by preying on our fears new development! You have to think and yet, at the same time, being incredibly about what works, and not just what’s condescending. new.”

“Health care is frightening. But our It does seem that the pharmaceutical interactions with it don’t have to be industry is entirely obsessed with the ‘new that way. We can take a different and improved’, with finding new ways to tone.”

The Enlightened Zagger

Help Remedies do this by being a friendly adviser talking to a sensible human, rather than as a slightly manic, paranoid and over-worked doctor talking to an inconvenient and stupid patient. A company that most people would love to engage with surely.

Yet they do also have strong beliefs and ask some questions that many in America will have found very uncomfortable and challenging over the last year: issues not deemed appropriate to discuss within this brand’s category, but much discussed and debated beyond– like their open support for U.S. healthcare reform: “We hope that talking about people without healthcare will sound very old fashioned in the near future.”

Or take the most taboo subject in the healthcare category– death. Help Remedies not only mentions death casually on their website, but also quietly questions religion, and the existence of heaven...

“We are not certain there is a heaven but it would be nice if there were one, because that would mean you didn’t just die and face eternal blackness.”

Amen to that.

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The Scrappy David / The Irreverent Maverick / The Missionary / The Next Generation / The Real and Human Challenger / The Visionary / The Game Changer / The People’s Champion / The Enlightened Zagger /The Democratiser

THE

DEMOCRATISER Millionaire Banker Gives Credit Where It’s Due

W

hen India took its independence in 1947 and held its first democratic election after two centuries of British rule universal suffrage was instant and true to Gandhi’s early ambition: to achieve not just freedom but genuine democracy including equal rights between men and women:

for India’s poorest women is still very much an ongoing battle.

And it is a battle taken up most recently by perhaps a surprising candidate– a male, billionaire banker.

Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, started his micro-finance business in Bangladesh as a profit-making “To call woman the weaker sex is a enterprise, committed to democratising libel; it is man's injustice to woman. If credit and giving the nation’s poorest by strength is meant brute strength, people a way to help themselves out of then, indeed, is woman less brute than poverty. Based on his business success, man. If by strength is meant moral Yunus has recently launched the notpower, then woman for-profit Grameen is immeasurably Foundation, which man's superior.

"Conventional Banks now supports the Without her, man Grameen Capital could not be. If Go To The Rich– India project. nonviolence is the law of our being, We Go To The Poor" The idea behind the the future is with project is to help woman.” establish micro-finance institutions in When the constitution was written, India and enable them to lend capital articles 14, 15 and 16 promised equality to India’s poorest section of society– between the sexes. And to a surprising primarily women with children. extent India has, in its short independent history, seen some great achievements for The problem behind economic inequality women– the election of Indira Gandhi as in India is simple, says Yunus, and is the Prime Minister in 1996 (one of the first same the world over: and certainly the longest serving female “Poverty is not in the human being Prime Ministers in world history) being because we were all born the same. perhaps the most celebrated example.

Poverty is created by the institutions that we build. If you fix the institution, But aside from the hugely significant and there will be no poverty.” symbolic achievements of individual women within India’s political and social spheres– and primarily as a result Yunus’s direct criticism of the economic of India’s caste, capitalist and religious system that traps people in poverty is divides– the fight for economic equality damning, and his ambition– not just to

alleviate, but to eradicate poverty– is impressive. Yet his answer is not to end the capitalist system, but to extend it. He is not a revolutionary, but a Democratiser– determined to give greater access to the financial system, that is currently denied to those who most need it.

“Conventional banks go to the rich– we go to the poor.”

In India, until now, the poor have traditionally lacked access to formal credit. More than 65 million poor households have no access to microfinance largely due to an ineffective delivery of financial services to them.

“improved the livelihoods of farmers and others who are provided access to critical market information and lifeline communications previously unattainable”.

This and the many other micro-finance initiatives made possible by Grameen’s support have not gone unnoticed in the world’s largest democracy. Despite relative self-sufficiency, rapid economic growth and an increasing role in world political affairs, India’s current government acknowledges that while India has succeeded in achieving political democracy for its people it is a long way from achieving economic equality.

Grameen’s democratisation of credit is much appreciated and rewarded.

“Local banks will not lend to microGive A Large Group Of finance institutions because they cannot And just this year People Access To provide collateral,” the Prime Minister of Yunus writes in India, Dr. Manmohan Something That his book, ‘Creating Singh, joined world a World Without leaders to applaud Has Previously Poverty’. However this Democratiser. because Grameen Been Denied Dr. Singh declared Capital India is while addressing now able to “act as the Indian Parliament in December a guarantor, local banks are happy to last year. “Professor Yunus is truly provide the money.” an exceptional human being and And so by opening doors to affordable it is really a privilege to be in his capital, micro-finance institutions and company,” other poverty-focused organisations are now able to grow and serve more of Professor Yunus has revolutionised the India’s poor, especially women. Grameen idea of micro-credit and made it accessible Capital India’s success has surpassed to the poorest of the poor. A credit Yunus expectations. In less than two years, it can add to his 2006 Nobel Peace Prize “for has generated more than $100 million their efforts to create economic and social in financing for Indian micro-finance development from below.” institutions, which will fund more than 800,000 microloans for poor people in So is this what it means for a Challenger to take the Democratiser stance? It need that country. not be quite so intimidating. Taking this stance does not necessitate that you And what does micro-finance look become a campaigner for peace or against like? poverty. It is really about giving a large One example that has proved particularly group of people access to something that effective is the has previously been ‘Telephone Lady’ denied.

What Was Reserved initiative.

Through Of course across micro-finance a For The Few history the Challenger woman is able characters who have to buy a mobile Is Now Available taken this stance are phone to provide a often like Gandhi– telecom mu n icat ion To The Masses civil rights activists, service to her entire political leaders and village, while earning philosophers.

But the profits for herself.

An award winning and wide spread they are also inventors, entrepreneurs “initiative that has created a new class of and opportunists who have found ways women entrepreneurs who have raised to make that which has been reserved for the few now available to the masses– themselves from poverty.” whether that be freedom, money…

According to the Development Gateway or cake.

Foundation it has:

The Scrappy David /The Irreverent Maverick / The Missionary / The Next Generation / The Real and Human Challenger / The Visionary / The Game Changer / The People’s Champion / The Enlightened Zagger/The Democratiser

SO HOW CAN WE USE THESE

10 CHALLENGER NARRATIVES

Y

es, yes– all very interesting. But what's the utility of ten possible Challenger narratives? How could we actually use this to help us see new potential for our brand?

If we are launching, or extending into a new category, then the model’s value is to shine a fresh light on the strategic areas that are most open for us profitably to occupy. Because if we look at our category through this lens, one of the things that is most likely to strike us is how few of them we see being used. If one simply looks at packaged goods categories created in the last 20 years, for example– like energy drinks or smoothies– most of the brands in those categories seem to be defined by the stance of the first entrant into that category. If the brand that effectively launched energy drinks is an Irreverent Maverick, then it seems that every subsequent contender feels they need to be an Irreverent Maverick as well– just in a bigger can and with more caffeine. If the brand that launched smoothies is a Real and Human Challenger, every smoothie brand all over the world since then seems to have felt obliged to follow suit.

Yet surely, with both categories as saturated as they are, if we are launching so late into one of them ourselves, that defining stance is the very last stance we should now be looking at. We should instead be using this model to explore the opportunities that might lie for us, as a new contender, in adopting one of these other nine stories. Each with its own unique take on energy, or approach to fruit, or whatever the story is we want to tell.

And if we are looking to focus on our core, rather than launch or extend, what is the value of these challenger narratives to us then? Well one of the most significant questions that people ask us about Challengers is this: ‘Why is it that some Challengers thrive over long periods of time, while others just seem to flare brightly for a while, and then fade and die?’

One of the key answers to this question lies in the world becoming over-familiar with a Challenger’s initial narrative. What was new becomes stale, what was unique becomes imitated. Think The Body Shop, think any number of once startlingly fresh Challengers that have now simply become rather tired parts of the cultural scenery.

And in this situation, as owners of the brand, our temptation is to confuse values with stance. We either think that because we want to stand for the same core values, we have also to go on taking the same stance, wrapping the same story around those values (The Body Shop). Or we think that because people are getting over familiar with our stance, that we are going to have to change what we stand for– those core values themselves (as Orange seemed to do).

And yet if one looks at the Challengers who have genuinely endured, one of the reasons they have done so is precisely because they have always stood for the same core values, but changed their stance along the way. Southwest, Apple, even Virgin– those masters of Challenger longevity have maintained our interest by migrating the story they told.

Look at Apple; from Scrappy David to Irreverent Maverick to Game Changer (one even reads interviews with Steve Jobs talking about Apple as a Democratiser now). They continue to keep our relationship with the brand as vibrant as our relationship with the products.

To paraphrase Giuseppe di Lampedusa, in his masterpiece The Leopard: ‘If we want to stay the same, we will have to change.’

If we want to keep a fresh, dynamic relationship with our consumers, we will want to evolve our own Challenger story without changing our defining point of view. One compelling headline at a time.

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eatbigfish is a consultancy whose unique focus is Challenger behaviour and thinking.

Our expertise comes from researching and working with businesses who either are or want to be Challengers. We do not view ourselves as traditional consultants, but rather as catalysts that help clients reach their own solutions. We do this primarily through a facilitated workshop approach. Our offer covers large parts of the brand development cycle, but always through a Challenger lens.

We want to increase the effectiveness and reach of our work, so much of our thinking and the tools and frameworks we use are also available in online programmes and in DIY kits that clients can run for themselves.

CONTACT eatbigfish First Floor, Bramah House, 65-71 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3XF, UK

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