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Eating the Big Fish

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Eating the Big Fish

How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders

Wiley,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Why being second best is good news: how to use the Challenger mentality to stay in fighting condition in your market.

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Editorial Rating

7

Recommendation

Author Adam Morgan went hunting for the second most successful brands. He sought commonalities among them to develop guidelines for those who are challenging the number one brands in their fields. In other words, if you are coming into the battle in the number two slot, here’s your strategy for winning the marketing wars. Morgan is very adept at breaking things down into precise action steps. Witty and engaging, he offers a detailed analysis of the current consumer attitude about brands plus strategies you can use to market your second or third rank brand. getAbstract.com recommends this compilation of competitive ideas to those who want to boost their "Challenger" brands.

Summary

Beating the Big Brands

Given the rapid development of e-business, the power of a brand is even more important now than ever. Changes in the world of marketing add to the challenge. As markets mature, they change and companies must change with them.

In one major shift, product categories that have generated excess capacity become filled with companies that are competing for the same pool of customers. For example, Ford Motor Company has estimated that 70 million cars are produced annually - but the natural demand exists for only 50 million.

Another change is that market leaders must now adopt an aggressive stance. Larger companies not only compete with smaller ones in their own categories, but reach out to compete in markets outside their normal playing fields. For example, when McDonalds diversified its menu to include yogurt and chicken items, it quit competing just against other fast food hamburger chains. With these additions, it is now competing against chicken outlets and even ice cream parlors.

If big companies are acting like this, how should small companies act? Second-rank firms cannot succeed by behaving like smaller versions of the dominant brands...

About the Author

Adam Morgan is Joint European Planning Director of the TBWA advertising agency and former Planning Director, North America, for Chiat/Day. As founder of the Challenger Project, an international study of Challenger Brands, he lectures widely on this subject.


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