[Imagine for a moment it’s the early 1950s and you’re the CMO (or senior-most marketing executive of the day) at Colgate-Palmolive Company. You’re about to invest tens of thousands (millions in inflation-adjusted dollars) in the sponsorship of a radio or television program. While you would have faced challenges in the process, the one challenge you would not have had to face was that of a Challenger Brand trying to do something similar. Smaller, less affluent competitors could not afford to produce and broadcast such programs. Fast-forward to the second decade of the next millennium, and that same CMO would be faced with a multitude of challenges from Challenger Brands.
Thanks to vod-casting, pod-casting, vlogs, blogs, etc., anyone with a flip video and/or handheld recorder can create, produce, direct and even star in a broadcast-quality video or audio production and deliver that message to an even broader audience for literally pennies compared to that 1950s investment. And Challenger Brands are doing just that with startling results. The world has shrunk even further as a result of the Internet.
Small Challenger Brand companies are making substantial inroads in ways in which they could never have even imagined just a few short years ago. Challenger Brands are leveraging this advantage and making significant progress in absorbing marketshare from their less nimble and formerly formidable competitors. Challenger Brands are embracing and leveraging technology as fast as it is made available. They are using it to their full advantage to consistently lead popular culture somewhere new. Are you leveraging technology to its fullest?
Are you a Challenger Brand?
