The document discusses characteristics of challenger brands and how to identify if a brand is a challenger brand. It provides a list of traits that challenger brands exhibit such as being aggressive, risk-taking, and confident. It then outlines eight credos that successful challenger brands follow, such as having a clear lighthouse identity, being thought leaders, using symbols to prompt re-evaluation, sacrificing secondary goals, overcommitting to their primary strategy, leveraging communication/publicity, and becoming idea-centered rather than consumer-centered. The document advises checking if a brand exhibits over 50% of the listed traits to determine if it is a challenger brand.

1. Are You a Challenger Brand?
How to Tell if Your Brand is Ready
to Take on the Market
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2. How to Tell if You’re a Challenger Brand
Do any of these characteristics fit you or your organization?
 Aggressive/Determined
 Possessed with Intensity/Confidence
 Maverick/Risk-Takers/Bold If you’ve checked off
 Intrusive & Unapologetic
at least 50% of this list,
chances are you are
 Self-Aware (or work for)
 Thought Leader a Challenger Brand!
 In a Hurry
 Evokes Emotions
 Keen to Fund Marketing and Public Relations Efforts to Move Your Brand Ahead
Source: Eating the Big Fish, Adam Morgan, 2009 2

3. Describing the Challenger Brand Mentality
• Challenger Brands share these attributes:
– State of Market: They’re not the #1 brand and not a niche
player
– State of Mind: They have ambitions that exceed their
conventional marketing resources
– Rate of Success: They are succeeding, not merely ambitious or
arrogant
• Challenger Brands understand that:
– The market leader is already top of mind.
– They can’t outspend the leader. The best chance they have to
gain share is by being the mindshare leader.
– To win mindshare takes thought leadership.
Source: Eating the Big Fish, Adam Morgan, 2009 3

4. The 8 Credos of Successful Challenger Brands
1. Intelligent Naivety
2. Lighthouse Identity
3. Thought Leadership
4. Symbols of Re-Evaluation
5. Sacrifice
6. Over commitment
7. Communications, Publicity and Social Culture
8. Become Idea-Centered, Not Consumer-Centered
Source: Eating the Big Fish, Adam Morgan, 2009 4

5. #1 – Intelligent Naivety
• Challenger Brands intentionally divorce themselves from
their assumptions about the category in which they
compete
• It is imperative for Challenger Brands to find a new
criterion for defining value in the category
Source: Eating the Big Fish, Adam Morgan, 2009 5

6. #1 – Intelligent Naivety (cont.)
• Challenger brands typically reject:
– Some fundamental dimension or driver of the category
– Some aspect of the way the consumer shops for or experiences
their product
– The culture surrounding their category
– Some broader aspect of contemporary culture
– Some dimension or quality of the Market Leader
Source: Eating the Big Fish, Adam Morgan, 2009 6

7. #2 – Lighthouse Identity
• Challenger Brands develop a very clear sense of who they
are and what they stand for…and then project that
identity so intensely that the consumer is forced to notice
them
• These “Lighthouse” brands proudly tell consumers where
they stand in strong, emotional terms
• Challenger Brands over-engineer their products, offering
the consumer dramatically superior performance on some
dimension (e.g. price, durability)
• A Lighthouse Identity defines not only the brand but also
what business the brand is really in
Source: Eating the Big Fish, Adam Morgan, 2009 7

8. #3 – Thought Leadership
• Thought leaders challenge one of the conventions that
surround their category:
• They must educate consumers to think that there is a
whole new criterion for choice in the market other than
those established by the Market Leader
Source: Eating the Big Fish, Adam Morgan, 2009 8

9. #4 – Symbols of Re-Evaluation
• Challenger Brands are in a hurry! They must act swiftly
and powerfully to puncture the consumer’s autopilot and
create re-apprasial of themselves.
• Bold, impactful acts or marketing ideas
capture the indifferent consumer’s
imagination and bring about rapid
re-evaluation of their role in the
consumer’s life
• Startling juxtapositions that prompt consumers to sit up
and rethink some of their assumptions
Source: Eating the Big Fish, Adam Morgan, 2009 9

10. #5 - Sacrifice
• Challenger Brands make sacrifices that stand out because
they are single-minded
• All secondary and tertiary targets are sacrificed in favor of
their one strategy; these actions or behaviors will often
leave other challengers behind
Source: Eating the Big Fish, Adam Morgan, 2009 10

11. #6 – Over commitment
• Challenger Brands over commit because they have to.
• Their decision to sacrifice makes success in their one
chose area imperative.
• Challenger Brands think about barriers and actively
remove them before they occur.
Source: Eating the Big Fish, Adam Morgan, 2009 11

12. #7 – Communications, Publicity & Social Culture
• Challenger Brands leverage communication, bold
advertising and publicity to appeal to consumers’ broader
social needs.
• Challengers enjoy strong folklore— either
at an iconic level through the brand’s
advertising & marketing, or as a reference
in popular culture and word of mouth.
• Social salience allows a Challenger Brand
to punch above its media weight.
Source: Eating the Big Fish, Adam Morgan, 2009 12

13. #8 – Become Idea-Centered, Not Consumer-Centered
• Challengers maintain momentum because it returns sales
and revenues and gives the perception the Challenger is
making a run in the category
• Challenger Brands can never afford to be static!
Source: Eating the Big Fish, Adam Morgan, 2009 13

14. What’s Next?
Do you think you’re a Challenger Brand?
Hire the experienced digital agency
that understands your unique position.
Call us at (410) 942-0488,
or email fierce@webadvantage.net
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