In the world of Challenger Brands, the lines between B-to-B and B-to-C are blurring to the point where we believe there are no longer such designations. One thing we know to be true, no business has ever made a decision to work with another business. People within those businesses made the conscious decisions to work with the people in other businesses. At Gumas, we believe all business is H-to-H: Human-to-Human, and Challenger Brand Marketing must connect on a human level. One way we like to help traditionally labeled B-to-B organizations think more human-ly, is by running key team members through a branding exercise called, RetailVision.

Understanding what your customers and prospects need to hear from you that will motivate them to learn more, contact you or complete some sort of action is at the foundation of the Challenger Brand approach to messaging. To discover this magical, compelling language, your current customers must be forthcoming with the reasons why they currently work with you and why they are delighted by you on a daily basis. To learn this, we need to conduct formal, confidential, one-on-one phone interviews. Here are some things to consider when researching your customers.

Like many of you, when the calendar turns to March, we think of tournament time. Bracketology. Cinderellas. Fantastic Finishes. Madness. Since this is the season of winning and advancing, we thought we’d share with you our own version of Challenger Brand Madness that requires you, the marketer, to consider your own business situation and fill out a bracket.

Our #1 job as a Challenger Brand Marketing agency is not to create great advertising and implement incisive strategic marketing plans; our job is to help our clients grow their businesses. In the aggregate, designing cool ads and smartly activating them becomes merely part of our job. And, for most marketers, the strength of a business can be measured in terms of Brand Value.

As we look ahead to a bright and exciting 2016, many of us use this pensive time of reflection and speculation to establish personal resolutions going into the new year. Exercising more, eating better and stopping to smell the flowers are all admirable goals for any of us. But, why should individuals have all of the fun setting 2016 New Year’s Resolutions? We think Challenger Brands should have resolutions, too.

It’s the holiday season and we at Gumas would like to share a gift with the Challenger Brand community. As an agency geographically based in the belly of the technology beast, we have built and branded many start-ups. Frequently, this process begins with the development of an appropriate and provocative brand name. 

Quickly, go to your company’s website homepage. One-thousand-one, what do you see? One-thousand-two, can you immediately tell whose homepage you’re on? One-thousand-three, is it clearly marked with your logo and company colors? One-thousand-four, can you tell what your company does?