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A revised and updated version of the classic book on what it takes for small brands to eat the big tuna Since Wiley first published Eating the Big Fish in 1999, the concept of the challenger brand has become a mainstream idea among marketers and advertisers.
EATING THE BIG FISH : How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded The second edition of the international bestseller, now revised and updated for 2009, just in time for the business challenges ahead. It contains over 25 new interviews and case histories, two completely new chapters,…mehr
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A revised and updated version of the classic book on what it takes for small brands to eat the big tuna Since Wiley first published Eating the Big Fish in 1999, the concept of the challenger brand has become a mainstream idea among marketers and advertisers.
EATING THE BIG FISH : How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded The second edition of the international bestseller, now revised and updated for 2009, just in time for the business challenges ahead. It contains over 25 new interviews and case histories, two completely new chapters, introduces a new typology of 12 different kinds of Challengers, has extensive updates of the main chapters, a range of new exercises, supplies weblinks to view interviews online and offers supplementary downloadable information.
Hinweis: Dieser Artikel kann nur an eine deutsche Lieferadresse ausgeliefert werden.
EATING THE BIG FISH : How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded The second edition of the international bestseller, now revised and updated for 2009, just in time for the business challenges ahead. It contains over 25 new interviews and case histories, two completely new chapters, introduces a new typology of 12 different kinds of Challengers, has extensive updates of the main chapters, a range of new exercises, supplies weblinks to view interviews online and offers supplementary downloadable information.
Hinweis: Dieser Artikel kann nur an eine deutsche Lieferadresse ausgeliefert werden.
Produktdetails
- Produktdetails
- Verlag: Wiley & Sons
- 2. Aufl.
- Seitenzahl: 368
- Erscheinungstermin: 3. März 2009
- Englisch
- Abmessung: 238mm x 162mm x 37mm
- Gewicht: 560g
- ISBN-13: 9780470238271
- ISBN-10: 0470238275
- Artikelnr.: 23819563
- Verlag: Wiley & Sons
- 2. Aufl.
- Seitenzahl: 368
- Erscheinungstermin: 3. März 2009
- Englisch
- Abmessung: 238mm x 162mm x 37mm
- Gewicht: 560g
- ISBN-13: 9780470238271
- ISBN-10: 0470238275
- Artikelnr.: 23819563
ADAM MORGAN is a partner in eatbigfish (www.eatbigfish.com), an international brand and marketing consultancy specializing in Challenger brand strategy, behavior, and culture. Previously an executive with TBWA\Chiat\Day, one of the world's largest advertising agencies, he has worked with clients like IKEA, Unilever, Virgin, and Apple. He and his partners together run The Challenger Project, the evolving research into how Challenger brands think and behave, on which their thinking, writing, and speaking is based.
Preface xiii
Foreword by Antonio Lucio xxi
Part 1 The Size and Nature of the Big Fish 1
1 The Law of Increasing Returns 3
The task facing a Challenger in competing strongly against a Market Leader
is more intimidating than we might have imagined. This chapter explores the
scale of the advantages their superior size-and the fact of
leadership-brings, and points to why we need as Challengers to consider a
different kind of strategic approach in order to succeed.
2 The Consumer Isn't 13
Marketeers step into this new business world equipped with a set of basic
assumptions about their business that have by now become dangerously
flawed. The fundamental premises underlying everyday marketing vocabulary
such as consumer, audience, and category require careful reexamination, and
the implications of their weaknesses need to be understood-in particular,
the consequent need for ideas, rather than communications, as the new
currency of growth.
3 What Is a Challenger Brand? 24
This chapter offers an entirely new kind of brand model for second-rank
brands finding themselves threatened by the Brand Leader-the model of the
Challenger brand. A Challenger brand is defined through three attributes: a
state of market, a state of mind, and a rate of success. This chapter
concludes by explaining how the core brands considered in Part 2 came to be
chosen, and gives
an example of how the book attempts to turn each significant Challenger
case history into a relevant exercise that can be valuably applied to the
marketeer's own brand.
Part 2 The Eight Credos of Successful Challenger Brands 33
What marketing characteristics do the great Challenger brands and companies
of the past 15 years share? If we could identify those characteristics, how
could we apply them to our own situation
to generate a source of personal business advantage?
This section identifies and discusses the common marketing strands these
brands have shared and devotes eight chapters to discussing each in turn.
4 The First Credo: Intelligent Naivety 35
The great wave makers in any category are those who are new to it-like Jeff
Bezos, who came out of finance to change the way books were sold, or Eric
Ryan of method, who left advertising to reinvent the household cleaning
business. This chapter looks at the need for marketeers to break free from
the clutter of little pieces of knowledge that are the basis of their
strategic thinking in order to see the real opportunities for radical
growth. It also offers ways for those already deeply experienced in a
category to achieve this vital innocence.
5 Monsters and Other Challenges: Gaining Clarity on the Center 61
Once you have explored the potential opportunities available to you as a
Challenger, it is time to be clear about what your challenge to the
category or another category player is going to be. This chapter explores a
structure for thinking about that central challenge and discusses the key
options open to us; this clarity is also a key part of laying the
foundations for the strategic thinking that follows.
6 The Second Credo: Build a Lighthouse Identity 80
Success as a Challenger comes through developing a very clear sense of who
or what you are as a brand/business and why-and then projecting that
identity intensely, consistently, and saliently
to the point where, like a lighthouse, consumers notice you (and know where
you stand) even if they are not looking for you. This chapter looks at the
roots, source, and nature of such identities and how successful Challengers
have built them.
7 The Third Credo: Take Thought Leadership of the Category 109
Marketeers tend to talk as if there is one Brand Leader in every category.
In fact, there are two: the Market Leader (the brand with the biggest share
and the biggest distribution) and the Thought
Leader-the brand that, while it may not be the largest, is the one that
everyone is talking about, that has the highest ''sensed momentum'' in the
consumer's mind. In this chapter the nature of Thought Leadership is
analyzed, and the methods of achieving it are explored.
8 The Fourth Credo: Create Symbols of Re-evaluation 134
Successful Challengers are brands in a hurry: they desire (and need) to
puncture the consumer's autopilot and create reappraisal of themselves and
their category swiftly and powerfully. To do so,
they create big, impactful acts or marketing ideas that capture the
indifferent consumer's imagination and bring about a rapid re-evaluation of
their image in the consumer's mind, and role in the consumer's
life. This chapter discusses some of the most striking of these symbols,
what specifically it was about them that achieved the results they did, and
what set them apart them from being just another publicity stunt.
9 The Fifth Credo: Sacrifice 156
Challengers have fewer resources in almost every aspect of the business and
marketing mix than do the Big Fish-what they choose not to do, that is,
what they choose to Sacrifice, is therefore as important to their success
as what they choose to do. The nature of this Sacrifice and some of its key
dimensions are the focus of this chapter.
10 The Sixth Credo: Overcommit 171
The converse of Sacrifice is Overcommitment: the idea that, following the
process of Sacrifice, if the marketeer or businessperson has chosen to
drive success through one or two key activities, then
these must be successful-and to achieve that success the marketeer must not
just commit but overcommit. This chapter looks at examples of
Overcommitment, and how we can reframe
our own thinking and approach to key activities to ensure their success.
11 The Seventh Credo: Using Communications and Publicity to Enter Social
Culture 189
For a Challenger, who is outgunned and outresourced in almost every other
area by the Market Leader, the use of communications to create genuine
salience in the world around us remains one of the very few remaining
sources of competitive advantage open-but only if systematically embraced
as such within the company. In this chapter, what it means to treat
communication ideas and publicity as high-leverage assets in this way is
discussed, as well as the changes in the communications development process
that are required.
12 The Eighth Credo: Become Idea-Centered, Not Consumer-Centered 218
Success is a very dangerous thing-it causes brands and people to stop
behaving in the way that made them initially successful. The eighth credo,
then, encompasses how a Challenger maintains its momentum once it has
become successful, in particular moving the organization from being
consumer-dependent to focusing on the generation and implementation of
ideas-ideas that constantly refresh and renew the relationship with the
consumer.
Part 3 Applying the Challenger Program 241
13 Writing the Challenger Program: The Two-Day Off-Site 243
For the marketeer interested in beginning a Challenger Program, this
chapter offers an outline of a two-day Challenger workshop, designed not to
supplant a more rigorous and longer-term strategic process, but to
kick-start it with a core group of colleagues. Using cases discussed in the
book, it builds a series of exercises that can be powerfully applied to the
marketeer's own business to reveal the opportunities and potential that
will allow it to compete aggressively against the Brand Leader.
14 The Scope of the Lighthouse Keeper 270
This chapter looks at what it means to be the person building and
protecting a Lighthouse Identity, particularly in a new media world. After
discussing who is the real ''Lighthouse Keeper'' in a new kind
of consumer relationship where your users' blogs can be as influential as
your own media campaigns, it questions much of the misleading sound-bite
journalism about the new marketing world, in particular
the notion that the consumer is in charge and that new media is electronic
and social media. It notes the four key vectors of change in modern brand
building that are driven by our Lighthouse Identity- convenience and
instant gratification, polysensual product experience, interactive
participation, and social and environmental responsibility, and how the new
breed of Challengers is leaning into one or more of these to further
delineate their unique position in the world.
Part 4 Mind-Set, Culture, and Risk 291
15 Challenger as a State of Mind: Staying Number One Means Thinking Like a
Number Two 293
Being a Challenger is not a series of actions in and of themselves-it is as
much as anything else a state of mind. Therefore, although the book is
primarily geared toward the particular needs of Challenger
brands, this chapter pauses to consider the possible broader relevance of
Challenger thinking and behavior in the marketplace. In particular, it
looks at the lessons to be gained from a new generation
of Brand Leaders and how they illustrate the way in which the rules of
Brand Leadership have fundamentally changed-namely, why staying Number One
now means thinking and behaving like a Number Two.
16 Risk, Will, and the Circle of Rope 303
The book concludes by discussing the more intangible characteristics of
Challengers-luck, emotion, and the preparedness to embrace risk.
References and Sources 315
Acknowledgments for the Second Edition 321
Photo Credits 323
Index 325
Foreword by Antonio Lucio xxi
Part 1 The Size and Nature of the Big Fish 1
1 The Law of Increasing Returns 3
The task facing a Challenger in competing strongly against a Market Leader
is more intimidating than we might have imagined. This chapter explores the
scale of the advantages their superior size-and the fact of
leadership-brings, and points to why we need as Challengers to consider a
different kind of strategic approach in order to succeed.
2 The Consumer Isn't 13
Marketeers step into this new business world equipped with a set of basic
assumptions about their business that have by now become dangerously
flawed. The fundamental premises underlying everyday marketing vocabulary
such as consumer, audience, and category require careful reexamination, and
the implications of their weaknesses need to be understood-in particular,
the consequent need for ideas, rather than communications, as the new
currency of growth.
3 What Is a Challenger Brand? 24
This chapter offers an entirely new kind of brand model for second-rank
brands finding themselves threatened by the Brand Leader-the model of the
Challenger brand. A Challenger brand is defined through three attributes: a
state of market, a state of mind, and a rate of success. This chapter
concludes by explaining how the core brands considered in Part 2 came to be
chosen, and gives
an example of how the book attempts to turn each significant Challenger
case history into a relevant exercise that can be valuably applied to the
marketeer's own brand.
Part 2 The Eight Credos of Successful Challenger Brands 33
What marketing characteristics do the great Challenger brands and companies
of the past 15 years share? If we could identify those characteristics, how
could we apply them to our own situation
to generate a source of personal business advantage?
This section identifies and discusses the common marketing strands these
brands have shared and devotes eight chapters to discussing each in turn.
4 The First Credo: Intelligent Naivety 35
The great wave makers in any category are those who are new to it-like Jeff
Bezos, who came out of finance to change the way books were sold, or Eric
Ryan of method, who left advertising to reinvent the household cleaning
business. This chapter looks at the need for marketeers to break free from
the clutter of little pieces of knowledge that are the basis of their
strategic thinking in order to see the real opportunities for radical
growth. It also offers ways for those already deeply experienced in a
category to achieve this vital innocence.
5 Monsters and Other Challenges: Gaining Clarity on the Center 61
Once you have explored the potential opportunities available to you as a
Challenger, it is time to be clear about what your challenge to the
category or another category player is going to be. This chapter explores a
structure for thinking about that central challenge and discusses the key
options open to us; this clarity is also a key part of laying the
foundations for the strategic thinking that follows.
6 The Second Credo: Build a Lighthouse Identity 80
Success as a Challenger comes through developing a very clear sense of who
or what you are as a brand/business and why-and then projecting that
identity intensely, consistently, and saliently
to the point where, like a lighthouse, consumers notice you (and know where
you stand) even if they are not looking for you. This chapter looks at the
roots, source, and nature of such identities and how successful Challengers
have built them.
7 The Third Credo: Take Thought Leadership of the Category 109
Marketeers tend to talk as if there is one Brand Leader in every category.
In fact, there are two: the Market Leader (the brand with the biggest share
and the biggest distribution) and the Thought
Leader-the brand that, while it may not be the largest, is the one that
everyone is talking about, that has the highest ''sensed momentum'' in the
consumer's mind. In this chapter the nature of Thought Leadership is
analyzed, and the methods of achieving it are explored.
8 The Fourth Credo: Create Symbols of Re-evaluation 134
Successful Challengers are brands in a hurry: they desire (and need) to
puncture the consumer's autopilot and create reappraisal of themselves and
their category swiftly and powerfully. To do so,
they create big, impactful acts or marketing ideas that capture the
indifferent consumer's imagination and bring about a rapid re-evaluation of
their image in the consumer's mind, and role in the consumer's
life. This chapter discusses some of the most striking of these symbols,
what specifically it was about them that achieved the results they did, and
what set them apart them from being just another publicity stunt.
9 The Fifth Credo: Sacrifice 156
Challengers have fewer resources in almost every aspect of the business and
marketing mix than do the Big Fish-what they choose not to do, that is,
what they choose to Sacrifice, is therefore as important to their success
as what they choose to do. The nature of this Sacrifice and some of its key
dimensions are the focus of this chapter.
10 The Sixth Credo: Overcommit 171
The converse of Sacrifice is Overcommitment: the idea that, following the
process of Sacrifice, if the marketeer or businessperson has chosen to
drive success through one or two key activities, then
these must be successful-and to achieve that success the marketeer must not
just commit but overcommit. This chapter looks at examples of
Overcommitment, and how we can reframe
our own thinking and approach to key activities to ensure their success.
11 The Seventh Credo: Using Communications and Publicity to Enter Social
Culture 189
For a Challenger, who is outgunned and outresourced in almost every other
area by the Market Leader, the use of communications to create genuine
salience in the world around us remains one of the very few remaining
sources of competitive advantage open-but only if systematically embraced
as such within the company. In this chapter, what it means to treat
communication ideas and publicity as high-leverage assets in this way is
discussed, as well as the changes in the communications development process
that are required.
12 The Eighth Credo: Become Idea-Centered, Not Consumer-Centered 218
Success is a very dangerous thing-it causes brands and people to stop
behaving in the way that made them initially successful. The eighth credo,
then, encompasses how a Challenger maintains its momentum once it has
become successful, in particular moving the organization from being
consumer-dependent to focusing on the generation and implementation of
ideas-ideas that constantly refresh and renew the relationship with the
consumer.
Part 3 Applying the Challenger Program 241
13 Writing the Challenger Program: The Two-Day Off-Site 243
For the marketeer interested in beginning a Challenger Program, this
chapter offers an outline of a two-day Challenger workshop, designed not to
supplant a more rigorous and longer-term strategic process, but to
kick-start it with a core group of colleagues. Using cases discussed in the
book, it builds a series of exercises that can be powerfully applied to the
marketeer's own business to reveal the opportunities and potential that
will allow it to compete aggressively against the Brand Leader.
14 The Scope of the Lighthouse Keeper 270
This chapter looks at what it means to be the person building and
protecting a Lighthouse Identity, particularly in a new media world. After
discussing who is the real ''Lighthouse Keeper'' in a new kind
of consumer relationship where your users' blogs can be as influential as
your own media campaigns, it questions much of the misleading sound-bite
journalism about the new marketing world, in particular
the notion that the consumer is in charge and that new media is electronic
and social media. It notes the four key vectors of change in modern brand
building that are driven by our Lighthouse Identity- convenience and
instant gratification, polysensual product experience, interactive
participation, and social and environmental responsibility, and how the new
breed of Challengers is leaning into one or more of these to further
delineate their unique position in the world.
Part 4 Mind-Set, Culture, and Risk 291
15 Challenger as a State of Mind: Staying Number One Means Thinking Like a
Number Two 293
Being a Challenger is not a series of actions in and of themselves-it is as
much as anything else a state of mind. Therefore, although the book is
primarily geared toward the particular needs of Challenger
brands, this chapter pauses to consider the possible broader relevance of
Challenger thinking and behavior in the marketplace. In particular, it
looks at the lessons to be gained from a new generation
of Brand Leaders and how they illustrate the way in which the rules of
Brand Leadership have fundamentally changed-namely, why staying Number One
now means thinking and behaving like a Number Two.
16 Risk, Will, and the Circle of Rope 303
The book concludes by discussing the more intangible characteristics of
Challengers-luck, emotion, and the preparedness to embrace risk.
References and Sources 315
Acknowledgments for the Second Edition 321
Photo Credits 323
Index 325
Preface xiii
Foreword by Antonio Lucio xxi
Part 1 The Size and Nature of the Big Fish 1
1 The Law of Increasing Returns 3
The task facing a Challenger in competing strongly against a Market Leader
is more intimidating than we might have imagined. This chapter explores the
scale of the advantages their superior size-and the fact of
leadership-brings, and points to why we need as Challengers to consider a
different kind of strategic approach in order to succeed.
2 The Consumer Isn't 13
Marketeers step into this new business world equipped with a set of basic
assumptions about their business that have by now become dangerously
flawed. The fundamental premises underlying everyday marketing vocabulary
such as consumer, audience, and category require careful reexamination, and
the implications of their weaknesses need to be understood-in particular,
the consequent need for ideas, rather than communications, as the new
currency of growth.
3 What Is a Challenger Brand? 24
This chapter offers an entirely new kind of brand model for second-rank
brands finding themselves threatened by the Brand Leader-the model of the
Challenger brand. A Challenger brand is defined through three attributes: a
state of market, a state of mind, and a rate of success. This chapter
concludes by explaining how the core brands considered in Part 2 came to be
chosen, and gives
an example of how the book attempts to turn each significant Challenger
case history into a relevant exercise that can be valuably applied to the
marketeer's own brand.
Part 2 The Eight Credos of Successful Challenger Brands 33
What marketing characteristics do the great Challenger brands and companies
of the past 15 years share? If we could identify those characteristics, how
could we apply them to our own situation
to generate a source of personal business advantage?
This section identifies and discusses the common marketing strands these
brands have shared and devotes eight chapters to discussing each in turn.
4 The First Credo: Intelligent Naivety 35
The great wave makers in any category are those who are new to it-like Jeff
Bezos, who came out of finance to change the way books were sold, or Eric
Ryan of method, who left advertising to reinvent the household cleaning
business. This chapter looks at the need for marketeers to break free from
the clutter of little pieces of knowledge that are the basis of their
strategic thinking in order to see the real opportunities for radical
growth. It also offers ways for those already deeply experienced in a
category to achieve this vital innocence.
5 Monsters and Other Challenges: Gaining Clarity on the Center 61
Once you have explored the potential opportunities available to you as a
Challenger, it is time to be clear about what your challenge to the
category or another category player is going to be. This chapter explores a
structure for thinking about that central challenge and discusses the key
options open to us; this clarity is also a key part of laying the
foundations for the strategic thinking that follows.
6 The Second Credo: Build a Lighthouse Identity 80
Success as a Challenger comes through developing a very clear sense of who
or what you are as a brand/business and why-and then projecting that
identity intensely, consistently, and saliently
to the point where, like a lighthouse, consumers notice you (and know where
you stand) even if they are not looking for you. This chapter looks at the
roots, source, and nature of such identities and how successful Challengers
have built them.
7 The Third Credo: Take Thought Leadership of the Category 109
Marketeers tend to talk as if there is one Brand Leader in every category.
In fact, there are two: the Market Leader (the brand with the biggest share
and the biggest distribution) and the Thought
Leader-the brand that, while it may not be the largest, is the one that
everyone is talking about, that has the highest ''sensed momentum'' in the
consumer's mind. In this chapter the nature of Thought Leadership is
analyzed, and the methods of achieving it are explored.
8 The Fourth Credo: Create Symbols of Re-evaluation 134
Successful Challengers are brands in a hurry: they desire (and need) to
puncture the consumer's autopilot and create reappraisal of themselves and
their category swiftly and powerfully. To do so,
they create big, impactful acts or marketing ideas that capture the
indifferent consumer's imagination and bring about a rapid re-evaluation of
their image in the consumer's mind, and role in the consumer's
life. This chapter discusses some of the most striking of these symbols,
what specifically it was about them that achieved the results they did, and
what set them apart them from being just another publicity stunt.
9 The Fifth Credo: Sacrifice 156
Challengers have fewer resources in almost every aspect of the business and
marketing mix than do the Big Fish-what they choose not to do, that is,
what they choose to Sacrifice, is therefore as important to their success
as what they choose to do. The nature of this Sacrifice and some of its key
dimensions are the focus of this chapter.
10 The Sixth Credo: Overcommit 171
The converse of Sacrifice is Overcommitment: the idea that, following the
process of Sacrifice, if the marketeer or businessperson has chosen to
drive success through one or two key activities, then
these must be successful-and to achieve that success the marketeer must not
just commit but overcommit. This chapter looks at examples of
Overcommitment, and how we can reframe
our own thinking and approach to key activities to ensure their success.
11 The Seventh Credo: Using Communications and Publicity to Enter Social
Culture 189
For a Challenger, who is outgunned and outresourced in almost every other
area by the Market Leader, the use of communications to create genuine
salience in the world around us remains one of the very few remaining
sources of competitive advantage open-but only if systematically embraced
as such within the company. In this chapter, what it means to treat
communication ideas and publicity as high-leverage assets in this way is
discussed, as well as the changes in the communications development process
that are required.
12 The Eighth Credo: Become Idea-Centered, Not Consumer-Centered 218
Success is a very dangerous thing-it causes brands and people to stop
behaving in the way that made them initially successful. The eighth credo,
then, encompasses how a Challenger maintains its momentum once it has
become successful, in particular moving the organization from being
consumer-dependent to focusing on the generation and implementation of
ideas-ideas that constantly refresh and renew the relationship with the
consumer.
Part 3 Applying the Challenger Program 241
13 Writing the Challenger Program: The Two-Day Off-Site 243
For the marketeer interested in beginning a Challenger Program, this
chapter offers an outline of a two-day Challenger workshop, designed not to
supplant a more rigorous and longer-term strategic process, but to
kick-start it with a core group of colleagues. Using cases discussed in the
book, it builds a series of exercises that can be powerfully applied to the
marketeer's own business to reveal the opportunities and potential that
will allow it to compete aggressively against the Brand Leader.
14 The Scope of the Lighthouse Keeper 270
This chapter looks at what it means to be the person building and
protecting a Lighthouse Identity, particularly in a new media world. After
discussing who is the real ''Lighthouse Keeper'' in a new kind
of consumer relationship where your users' blogs can be as influential as
your own media campaigns, it questions much of the misleading sound-bite
journalism about the new marketing world, in particular
the notion that the consumer is in charge and that new media is electronic
and social media. It notes the four key vectors of change in modern brand
building that are driven by our Lighthouse Identity- convenience and
instant gratification, polysensual product experience, interactive
participation, and social and environmental responsibility, and how the new
breed of Challengers is leaning into one or more of these to further
delineate their unique position in the world.
Part 4 Mind-Set, Culture, and Risk 291
15 Challenger as a State of Mind: Staying Number One Means Thinking Like a
Number Two 293
Being a Challenger is not a series of actions in and of themselves-it is as
much as anything else a state of mind. Therefore, although the book is
primarily geared toward the particular needs of Challenger
brands, this chapter pauses to consider the possible broader relevance of
Challenger thinking and behavior in the marketplace. In particular, it
looks at the lessons to be gained from a new generation
of Brand Leaders and how they illustrate the way in which the rules of
Brand Leadership have fundamentally changed-namely, why staying Number One
now means thinking and behaving like a Number Two.
16 Risk, Will, and the Circle of Rope 303
The book concludes by discussing the more intangible characteristics of
Challengers-luck, emotion, and the preparedness to embrace risk.
References and Sources 315
Acknowledgments for the Second Edition 321
Photo Credits 323
Index 325
Foreword by Antonio Lucio xxi
Part 1 The Size and Nature of the Big Fish 1
1 The Law of Increasing Returns 3
The task facing a Challenger in competing strongly against a Market Leader
is more intimidating than we might have imagined. This chapter explores the
scale of the advantages their superior size-and the fact of
leadership-brings, and points to why we need as Challengers to consider a
different kind of strategic approach in order to succeed.
2 The Consumer Isn't 13
Marketeers step into this new business world equipped with a set of basic
assumptions about their business that have by now become dangerously
flawed. The fundamental premises underlying everyday marketing vocabulary
such as consumer, audience, and category require careful reexamination, and
the implications of their weaknesses need to be understood-in particular,
the consequent need for ideas, rather than communications, as the new
currency of growth.
3 What Is a Challenger Brand? 24
This chapter offers an entirely new kind of brand model for second-rank
brands finding themselves threatened by the Brand Leader-the model of the
Challenger brand. A Challenger brand is defined through three attributes: a
state of market, a state of mind, and a rate of success. This chapter
concludes by explaining how the core brands considered in Part 2 came to be
chosen, and gives
an example of how the book attempts to turn each significant Challenger
case history into a relevant exercise that can be valuably applied to the
marketeer's own brand.
Part 2 The Eight Credos of Successful Challenger Brands 33
What marketing characteristics do the great Challenger brands and companies
of the past 15 years share? If we could identify those characteristics, how
could we apply them to our own situation
to generate a source of personal business advantage?
This section identifies and discusses the common marketing strands these
brands have shared and devotes eight chapters to discussing each in turn.
4 The First Credo: Intelligent Naivety 35
The great wave makers in any category are those who are new to it-like Jeff
Bezos, who came out of finance to change the way books were sold, or Eric
Ryan of method, who left advertising to reinvent the household cleaning
business. This chapter looks at the need for marketeers to break free from
the clutter of little pieces of knowledge that are the basis of their
strategic thinking in order to see the real opportunities for radical
growth. It also offers ways for those already deeply experienced in a
category to achieve this vital innocence.
5 Monsters and Other Challenges: Gaining Clarity on the Center 61
Once you have explored the potential opportunities available to you as a
Challenger, it is time to be clear about what your challenge to the
category or another category player is going to be. This chapter explores a
structure for thinking about that central challenge and discusses the key
options open to us; this clarity is also a key part of laying the
foundations for the strategic thinking that follows.
6 The Second Credo: Build a Lighthouse Identity 80
Success as a Challenger comes through developing a very clear sense of who
or what you are as a brand/business and why-and then projecting that
identity intensely, consistently, and saliently
to the point where, like a lighthouse, consumers notice you (and know where
you stand) even if they are not looking for you. This chapter looks at the
roots, source, and nature of such identities and how successful Challengers
have built them.
7 The Third Credo: Take Thought Leadership of the Category 109
Marketeers tend to talk as if there is one Brand Leader in every category.
In fact, there are two: the Market Leader (the brand with the biggest share
and the biggest distribution) and the Thought
Leader-the brand that, while it may not be the largest, is the one that
everyone is talking about, that has the highest ''sensed momentum'' in the
consumer's mind. In this chapter the nature of Thought Leadership is
analyzed, and the methods of achieving it are explored.
8 The Fourth Credo: Create Symbols of Re-evaluation 134
Successful Challengers are brands in a hurry: they desire (and need) to
puncture the consumer's autopilot and create reappraisal of themselves and
their category swiftly and powerfully. To do so,
they create big, impactful acts or marketing ideas that capture the
indifferent consumer's imagination and bring about a rapid re-evaluation of
their image in the consumer's mind, and role in the consumer's
life. This chapter discusses some of the most striking of these symbols,
what specifically it was about them that achieved the results they did, and
what set them apart them from being just another publicity stunt.
9 The Fifth Credo: Sacrifice 156
Challengers have fewer resources in almost every aspect of the business and
marketing mix than do the Big Fish-what they choose not to do, that is,
what they choose to Sacrifice, is therefore as important to their success
as what they choose to do. The nature of this Sacrifice and some of its key
dimensions are the focus of this chapter.
10 The Sixth Credo: Overcommit 171
The converse of Sacrifice is Overcommitment: the idea that, following the
process of Sacrifice, if the marketeer or businessperson has chosen to
drive success through one or two key activities, then
these must be successful-and to achieve that success the marketeer must not
just commit but overcommit. This chapter looks at examples of
Overcommitment, and how we can reframe
our own thinking and approach to key activities to ensure their success.
11 The Seventh Credo: Using Communications and Publicity to Enter Social
Culture 189
For a Challenger, who is outgunned and outresourced in almost every other
area by the Market Leader, the use of communications to create genuine
salience in the world around us remains one of the very few remaining
sources of competitive advantage open-but only if systematically embraced
as such within the company. In this chapter, what it means to treat
communication ideas and publicity as high-leverage assets in this way is
discussed, as well as the changes in the communications development process
that are required.
12 The Eighth Credo: Become Idea-Centered, Not Consumer-Centered 218
Success is a very dangerous thing-it causes brands and people to stop
behaving in the way that made them initially successful. The eighth credo,
then, encompasses how a Challenger maintains its momentum once it has
become successful, in particular moving the organization from being
consumer-dependent to focusing on the generation and implementation of
ideas-ideas that constantly refresh and renew the relationship with the
consumer.
Part 3 Applying the Challenger Program 241
13 Writing the Challenger Program: The Two-Day Off-Site 243
For the marketeer interested in beginning a Challenger Program, this
chapter offers an outline of a two-day Challenger workshop, designed not to
supplant a more rigorous and longer-term strategic process, but to
kick-start it with a core group of colleagues. Using cases discussed in the
book, it builds a series of exercises that can be powerfully applied to the
marketeer's own business to reveal the opportunities and potential that
will allow it to compete aggressively against the Brand Leader.
14 The Scope of the Lighthouse Keeper 270
This chapter looks at what it means to be the person building and
protecting a Lighthouse Identity, particularly in a new media world. After
discussing who is the real ''Lighthouse Keeper'' in a new kind
of consumer relationship where your users' blogs can be as influential as
your own media campaigns, it questions much of the misleading sound-bite
journalism about the new marketing world, in particular
the notion that the consumer is in charge and that new media is electronic
and social media. It notes the four key vectors of change in modern brand
building that are driven by our Lighthouse Identity- convenience and
instant gratification, polysensual product experience, interactive
participation, and social and environmental responsibility, and how the new
breed of Challengers is leaning into one or more of these to further
delineate their unique position in the world.
Part 4 Mind-Set, Culture, and Risk 291
15 Challenger as a State of Mind: Staying Number One Means Thinking Like a
Number Two 293
Being a Challenger is not a series of actions in and of themselves-it is as
much as anything else a state of mind. Therefore, although the book is
primarily geared toward the particular needs of Challenger
brands, this chapter pauses to consider the possible broader relevance of
Challenger thinking and behavior in the marketplace. In particular, it
looks at the lessons to be gained from a new generation
of Brand Leaders and how they illustrate the way in which the rules of
Brand Leadership have fundamentally changed-namely, why staying Number One
now means thinking and behaving like a Number Two.
16 Risk, Will, and the Circle of Rope 303
The book concludes by discussing the more intangible characteristics of
Challengers-luck, emotion, and the preparedness to embrace risk.
References and Sources 315
Acknowledgments for the Second Edition 321
Photo Credits 323
Index 325