Posts Tagged challenger brand
What’s Your “Brand Experience” Like?
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Touchpoints on September 29, 2011
When it comes to buying and using a product or service, we’ve all had really good and really bad experiences. Chances are we’ll go back wherever the experience has been good and never darken the halls again where it’s been bad.
My wife and I recently went through the process of buying a new car, something I’d typically place on the list just below getting my eye poked with a sharp stick in terms of fun things to do. After much research and hand wrangling, we settled on a Hyundai. I can’t speak for all Hyundai dealerships, but ours represented the Hyundai brand extremely well and made the overall experience — dare I say — “enjoyable.” The net: I have no problem going back to the Hyundai brand (assuming the car performs as expected) — and that particular dealership — in the future. There wasn’t any one thing that made this brand engagement work well, but rather a bunch of small things conspiring together to provide an excellent brand experience. Small things like the way the salesperson interacted with us. His product knowledge. The comfort and confidence we felt as we set about negotiating price. The dealership facilities. The features and value of the car itself. The iciness of the cup of water I was provided. Etc.
A couple of weeks later we received a detailed survey about our experience, with questions probing all manner of our interaction with the dealership and the Hyundai product. Clearly, Hyundai’s mission is to continue to improve the complete brand experience by defining and correcting the specific areas where they under-perform relative to their brand touchpoint management plan. As a challenger brand (but for not much longer, I suspect), Hyundai needs to continue to leverage strengths and shore up weaknesses — just like any successful brand.
Which brings me to you and the brand experience with which you are providing your customers and prospects. Do you know precisely what it is? Are you systematically assessing the experience your customers and prospects have with your brand(s)? Do you have a touchpoint management plan which prescribes, specifically and in measureable terms, how your touchpoints — interactions — are to be delivered relative to your brand identity? Do you know which touchpoints carry the greatest weight in keeping a customer or moving a prospect to become one?
The connection between delivering an exceptional brand experience and growing your business is obvious, no matter what business you’re in. So, specifically what are you doing about it?
How to Compete Against A Goliath Competitor
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Identity, Brand Touchpoints on August 13, 2010
Most of us in small business are looking up at a Goliath competitor. That big, dominant player which seems to effortlessly steal away our rightful market share, or keep us pent up as an ankle biter. Damn them.
The reasons they’re so dominant could be many:
- They were the first
- They listened to the wants and needs of the market and then addressed them better
- They have better, differentiated products or services
- They have a broader selection, better quality, better pricing, and/or better distribution
- They have better customer service
- They have a better warranty or guarantee
- They spend more on marketing and are more aggressive and sophisticated
- They have higher market awareness and preference
- They have deeper pockets
- They’re bigger
- Their breath smells better . . . or many more reasons depending on your perspective
If you’re faced with this kind of competitive dominance, you are a “challenger” brand. Being a ”challenger” suggests action. And, as a challenger brand, there’s plenty of opportunity for action on your part.
Keep this in mind as you plot your competitive course: as a challenger brand, what do you really have to lose by taking measured risks? The pressure’s on Goliath not to do anything that would jeopardize their market advantage, right?
So, what exactly do you do?
You may remember the classic challenger campaign waged years ago in the rental car market. The industry Goliath back then was Hertz. One ankle-biter challenger brand was Avis, and Avis set their sights on going toe-to-toe with the Hertz Goliath. Their branding campaign was simple: as the #2 player, we have to try harder to earn customers’ business. Avis committed themselves to offering the best cars, keeping them extra clean, ensuring the gas tank was full for pick up, and more. They also were able to promote their shorter lines — a result of being a less popular rental car brand. It was a great campaign which leveled the competitive battle field.
Like Avis, the key to successfully battling nose-to-nose with your Goliath lies in developing an effective brand identity platform that’s destinctive to your brand.
The process of developing this forces structured thinking about your brand strengths and weaknesses and those of your Goliath. It results in the formation of uncompromising brand mission and values statements that fuels the right business attitude. It enables your defining a clear and laser-focused brand positioning platform where you tell customers why they should do business with you rather than Goliath. It details your brand value proposition, the multi-level benefits users of your product or service will derive. And it defines the standards of performance when develivering the various brand touchpoints.
Dell, Virgin, Southwest Airlines, Apple, Hyundai, any popular musician or group — they were/are challenger brands. And each found just the right stone to throw at just the right place to knock down their Goliath. It wasn’t luck, it was considered planning and effort fueled by a challenger mindset.
You can do this.