Challenger Brands Need Tough Love
Companies that are not the market leaders in their industries need special advice about how to compete. For example, when a Challenger Brand company like K-Swiss, a shoemaker with 3% of the athletic shoe market, looks for an agency, they need three important qualities. First, they need an agency that understands their prime customers. Second, they need an agency experienced in image-driven products.
K-Swiss exercises its voice clearly through this video.
The first of these two things an agency can learn through primary and secondary research and by firsthand field studies of members of the target audience. The second comes with having worked on branding and marketing campaigns for companies whose products or services are historically commoditized or where the market has been primarily price driven.
But third, and perhaps most important, they need an agency that is not afraid to speak truth to its client; the honest truth about their brand, even if it’s painful to hear. What Challenger Brands need and want most is honesty. Only then can the real work of shaping brands and engaging customers begin.
Challenger Brands have to develop a clear and resonant “voice” and speak with that one voice throughout all communications, internal and external. Good Challenger Brand agencies listen, monitor, help shape and advise until Challenger Brand companies become very, very good at projecting their brands.
Another special service that Challenger Brands need from their agencies is confidence-building support in the face of overriding pressure to conform. Challenger Brands are often pushed to adhere to standard industry practices, compare themselves to the market leader and compete according to unwritten rules that the market leader has established. If the Challenger’s products or services are truly breakthrough innovations, they may even be derided and ridiculed by the market leader whose continued success depends on the status quo.
This is where Challenger Brand agencies really shine. Their task is to reassure Challenger Brands and keep them focused on the prize; whispering affirmations in their ears as bold and provocative branding and marketing strategies are about to be executed.
And this is where true Challenger Brands show their stripes. They work through their fear and follow through.
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Posted by: Andrea Fitting in: Words of Wisdom at: 4:20 pm Keywords: agencies, branding, Challenger Brand agencies, Challenger Brands, image-driven products, K-Swiss, market leaders, Marketing, tough love |
