Overthrow II - 10 strategies from the new wave of challengers

by Adam Morgan, Malcolm Devoy

Twenty years after the concept of the challenger brand was coined, a new wave of challengers has been changing the way the categories around us think and behave. Financed by a new type of investor, harnessing emerging structural changes and new ways to build relationships with their consumers, they have generated an enormous energy and excitement in the marketing and business community. But challenger behaviour is not confined to the new or the small. Brands of all sizes – whatever their category, competition, heritage or personality – can benefit from adopting a challenger mindset to drive more ambitious growth and make the impact they desire. In this book we explore the 10 different challenger strategies, or narratives, used most powerfully today, each of them embodied in interviews with incisive leaders who have used them to break through in their market. We look at the strategic principles that each follows, the media behaviours they practise, and the part that today’s big themes like technology, data, culture and creativity play. Overthrow II is a provocative and practical guide to focusing on what really matters: the narrative you need to be a compelling challenger brand in an increasingly noisy, crowded and distracted world.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[Mojtaba Akhbari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read if you are still unsure about your brand positioning or want to clarify your vision before launching a new brand.
My take aways were:
- We are different moment to moment. We frequently make different buying choices even when confronted by the same options. Targeting should be about the when and where and not the who.
- See yourself as a leader to guide people climbing ladders as fast as they can, and when they slip, put them back on.
- The Missionary. The business is the mission, and the mission is the objective. A KPI, something to strive for as it is measurable.
- Real and Human. Warm, human voice & personality coming from a company run by people who actually care about me and what they are doing for me.
- Next Generation. New times call for new brands, and I as a person am part of the new times.
- People Champion. Brands never forget the audience, or the fans, are the most important constituent in the brand. They are fighting for me; if they win, i win is the customer impression
- enlightened Zagger. Reimagines every touch point; identifies the grip of the category and always does the opposite. The art of parody.
- Democratizer. Opening access to everyone and making it accessible to a much broader group. A business model that radically reduces the access cost and therefore opens up the access to everyone.
- Irrelevant Maverick. There is no need to have a purpose, or being serious on the inside is not the best served by being serious on the outside. Deliberately setting out to entertain & engage.
- Fiesty Underdog. Aims to reduce a crowded competitive world to a simple choice, creating the emotional illusion that there are just two brands in the category to choose between. They in fact reduce the choice & simplify consumer decision making in the category in their favor.
- Dramatic Disrupter. Focuses on superior product or experience, dramatizing the product/experience compared to the competition & leaning into drama to change the criteria for choice in the category in its favor.
- Local Hero. Energy & emotion for localism &local connection plays explicitly to it. Rejection of homogeneity & distrust of big and international.

[L.C. Wolff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crucial business read as inspiration for any business or brand owner to be or not. Truly inspired me to see which categories my visions for my business falls into.

[Andres Felipe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gran libro, con ejemplos prácticos te permite tener una visual actualizada de la forma en la cual puedes definir los objetivos, personalidad y tono de la marca.

[Emma Budd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed looking at the strategies and stories of challenger brands such as Tony’s Chocolony. Some of the analysis and tips were really interesting and useful for someone working in marketing or business strategy