Yes, Your Brand Can Become a Challenger — It’s Not That Hard
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America’s love affair with challenger brands is older than the Boston Red Sox, and probably predates the 13 colonies. In recent years, an adoring business press has adopted the term to describe disruptive brands that come out of left field to unseat the market leader or win people’s hearts. The oft-told storyline follows a little brand with a better mousetrap as it rises out of obscurity.
Malcolm Gladwell’s “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants” references hundreds of examples. While these ascending challengers are genuine, I find the David-and-Goliath paradigm too restrictive.
Challenger brands aren’t necessarily small or medium or upstarts. Some are permanent challengers: Avis has been the “We try harder” brand for so long, it’s hard to imagine how it might reposition itself if it lets go of Hertz’s coattails. AMD has been the stepchild to Intel for decades and still finds ways to win. Challengers can be former leaders, like BlackBerry or Dove. They can include any brand looking to achieve meaningful revenue growth. What they have in common is that the most likely path to those revenues requires jousting with a market leader.
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