Bound to Consensus

I am reading this amazing book about brands and there there is this saying- if you are a challenger you have the following advantage, you are not bound to have consensus from the masses. This is true, as a leader you need to have consensus, if not your share will decline and obviously you'll no longer be a leader. At the same time, as a challenger you need to be different, to stand up so you need to appeal to colour, to sound, to feelings and you need to shock, to create a new way in which people think about what your brand is capable of doing. If you have reaction, you are on the right track. You might say, well but what if you have a totally negative reaction- even then, the idea is to get the buzz, to bring the comments to your Facebook page, to your website, or blog, to communicate and to   make them understand and at least respect/ appreciate your stand, if not agree with it. Its safe and good to be a leader, but sometimes its more fun to be a challenger. 

Second Place Brand Religion

Normal people have this image in their heads when they think about the story of David and Goliath. They think about the biblical fight between this nice young man and this huge monster of a man. They fight and the outcome is not as anticipated, the little man wins, because of his smartness and his faith. The story applies today as it applied in those ancient days. Its a story most of us carry with us, being inspired by its meaning. However this is fdor normal people, for non marketeers. I realized recently that my opinion on David and Goliath story has changed dramatically.  Nowadays when I think about David and Goliath another name appears in my mind- the name of Richard Branson. Its quite strange you might say. How is this possible, he can be Richard Branson, famous, glamorous and so on, but he can't get to the level of "biblical stories". However when I think about David and Goliath I think about a positioning, a positioning of a challenger brand in the way that a challenger brand can position itself - against the "Big bad cat" or the "Goliath's " of the market place. And this is what the virgin brand did with most of its brands and this is Richard Branson's special "competitive avantage". Maybe is not as convincing as " we try harder" but its quite convincing as this marketing strategy is put into practice by more and more brands every day. "David and Goliath" is the true story within the Cristian religion and today leaves a foot print for the challenger brands.