There have been some great challenger brands in history. They have successfully challenged their leaders and become eye-catching new stars in the market. Next, they either keep the posture of challenger brand, go into battle lightly and harvest the market, and limit the leader's field to a certain range, or they have become the new leader brand in the market.
For example, in the mobile phone market, Motorola was the leading brand at first, but Nokia seized the opportunity of analog to digital conversion, successfully challenged Motorola, and was promoted to the market leader through continuous excellent marketing.
Samsung takes Nokia as the challenge object in the global market, and has formulated the corresponding competitive strategy, which is a new generation of challenger brand. With the advent of the 3G era, Samsung's offensive is aggressive.
Iphone challenges traditional mobile phone manufacturers and claims to redefine mobile phones. Through interface and application design, iPhone has occupied the high-end and high-value market.
China mobile phone manufacturers are accustomed to the price strategy and are suppressed by international brands in the low-end mass market. Due to the strength, ideas, methods and other reasons, it has not been able to successfully use the challenger brand strategy to successfully enhance its market position.
The brand proposition of challenger brand should be clear and eye-catching
Challenger brands often don't necessarily have revolutionary technology or products, but they can't lack a clear brand proposition. Because the brand proposition does not depend on the leading edge of the product itself, the product design with differentiation edge or rebuilding an evaluation standard for the product can be the brand proposition of the challenger brand, which is different from the views of industry leaders. The brand proposition of Body Shop is very prominent: we believe that nature is the only way to beauty. This brand proposition is very strong. Whether you agree or not, it is true within a certain range. Most importantly, you can use it to unite a group of people. When IBM was the leader in the computer market, Apple's brand proposition was also very challenging: extraordinary.
Enterprises in China always lack this spirit and courage, which may be related to our culture. I want to be a low-key person in my bones and be a top bird. Li Ning should be a well-made brand, but the advertising language advocates being a follower: anything is possible, which is not only the same as Adidas' "Nothing is impossible", but also much less powerful. Look at Anta, a backward brand. The brand advocates "never stop", so it is full of spirit.
Challenger brand needs to make trouble frequently: launch problem propaganda.
There are many brands in the challenger position, and they have formulated very good challenge strategies in many aspects of marketing, such as price and channel policy. But when it comes to brand promotion, it becomes a follow-up strategy, copying the content and mode of communication of leading brands. In this way, the more advertisements are made, the more leading brands will benefit and the greater their market share will be.
Generally speaking, the marketing resources of challenger brand are relatively limited. In order to obtain better communication effect, it is a good communication strategy to constantly "pick things up". In view of the market situation taught by the leaders, find the right breakthrough, create issues and launch attacks. Patriot recently sued leading brands such as HP for USB patent. Regardless of the facts behind it, this public challenge has become very challenging. In this case, patriots will certainly make a fortune as soon as the topic is launched.
A classic example of launching topic propaganda is the body shop. Because the body shop takes the road of natural beauty differentiation and challenges the mainstream chemicals and cosmetics, the topic it introduces is environmental protection. Its CEO plays the role of an environmentalist. In addition to environmental problems, the body shop will also keep up with social hotspots and launch the topic of * *. The propaganda of these issues has achieved great publicity results by tinkering around the edges.
Challenger brands should wait for an opportunity to attack leaders.
Generally speaking, in order to maintain its market position, leading brands will continue to study the development of markets, consumers and technologies. Challenger brand will follow closely, understand its strategic intention, and then react faster than the leader.
Challenger brands must always be vigilant to ensure that they can seize the opportunity to counter the market and hit it with one blow.
Recently, Toyota * * exposed the "safety door" problem, and Honda responded quickly. In the China market, Honda launched a round of promotional activities with the theme of "witness quality", with car owners as witnesses and German consumers as witnesses, and seized the loopholes of competitors in "safety quality" and launched an attack.
In recent ten years, the mobile phone market has staged a wonderful game between leaders and challengers.
In the era of analog-to-digital conversion, Motorola is the leading brand in the mobile phone market, but it shoulders the heavy responsibility of the education market. With its technical advantages, brand advantages and the usual inertia of leaders, Motorola ignores the changes in the market: digital technology can make mobile phones lighter, smaller and easier to use. Challenger Nokia seized this opportunity, launched a portable and easy-to-use mobile phone for Motorola's slow response, and launched a fierce attack on Motorola with the slogan of "humanized technology". Nokia has successfully occupied the market, surpassed Motorola, and maintained its leading position to this day.
In the multimedia era, a new challenger was born, which is Samsung. Ten years ago, Samsung was unsustainable in the red sea of price war. Later, we learned from a painful experience, concentrated our advantages, and made an all-out attack on the mid-to-high-end mobile phone market, forming differentiation with "innovative styles and functional designs", challenging the fashion sense of Nokia and Samsung, which played a very good role in promoting the era of mobile phones as personal identity labels. This will help Samsung mobile phones expand rapidly around the world.
Challenger brand needs to maintain a completely different brand image from the leader.
The leader brand must always keep the leader's posture, so as to win the follow-up of consumers. Leaders are usually orthodox, controlling and serious, which is the advantage of brand leaders, but it is also the place where challengers can attack. The consumer market is not monolithic. Some consumers agree with the mainstream impression of strong leadership, and some consumers don't like it. They don't even like having the same brand, the same product, the same appearance and usage with others.
To succeed, the challenger brand needs to maintain a brand image different from that of the leader. Brand image and personality are powerful weapons to please consumers. The most famous example is Harley-Davidson, whose bad boy image, love for freedom and unrestrained personality, as well as Honda and Kawasaki, have caused a strong contrast among many motorcycle brands in the future. Roaring engines, leather pants and avant-garde shapes are all promoting a challenger's posture. Harley succeeded and became the most sought after motorcycle brand in the world.
Virgin Atlantic is also a brand with distinctive personality. Compared with the mainstream and solemnity of British Airways, Virgin Atlantic is extraordinary, and its CEO Branson is amazing and will never give up. He not only spared no effort to promote his own brand on various occasions, but also spoke for other brands to enhance his exposure.