Interviews
‘Subculture is the most powerful tool we have’
Louis Persent, Co-Founder and Creative Director at Weirdo on the power of embracing the niche
Challenging the Challengers
We gathered invaluable insights and used them to create a clearly defined picture of the threat posed by the Challenger, along with strategic pointers for survival and success as an established brand.
Jamie Matthews
CEO & Founding Partner InitialsOur whitepaper Challenging the Challengers examines the rise of the challenger brand and the increased threat this presents to established brands. It explores what is driving this movement and the behaviours that are contributing to challenger success in winning over the consumer. It raises the question, ‘Do established brands need to start behaving differently?’ Going on to answer this with an unmitigated ‘yes they do’.
To start getting under the skin of this business-critical issue, we commissioned quantitative research amongst over 1,000 people who had recently switched from established brands to challenger brands across eight categories: food, soft drinks, alcohol, household products, healthcare, toiletries, beauty and grooming products.
We gathered invaluable insights and used them to create a clearly defined picture of the threat posed by the Challenger, along with strategic pointers for survival and success as an established brand.
On 28th November 2018 at the House of Barnabas in Soho we held a breakfast event to launch the report. Simon Callender, Initials’ Creative Planning Director shared an overview of the research, before Initials’ CEO Jamie Matthews led a brand leader panel discussion featuring Heineken's Bas Bakker (Marketing Manager, Strongbow), Heloise Le Norcy-Trott (Group Marketing and Category Director, UK Lactalis) and Jeremy Carson (Founder and CEO of Fit Kit, a successful new challenger brand).
Our research found consumers are switching to challenger brands in their droves, with over two thirds of respondents saying being exposed to a multitude of marketing messages was making them less loyal to established brands. The findings expose five harsh truths established brands must tackle in the face of the challenger brand phenomenon.
We believe these findings should act as a wake-up call to brands. The rules of the game have changed, with challengers disrupting every one of the FMCG categories we examined. To compete effectively, established brands need to adopt more of a challenger mindset. Doing that requires bravery and a much greater appetite for risk. But in order to succeed they need to match a challenger’s sense of ambition and conviction. Regardless of category there is a lot to be learned from how the challengers are doing things.
KEY TAKE OUTS
- Challengers are impacting all categories. After food (57%), some two fifths (39%) of consumers say they have switched to a challenger brand in toiletries, followed by alcohol (35%), beauty (34%), household products (32%), healthcare (31%), soft drinks (29%), and grooming products (28%).
- The switch to challengers is likely to be permanent. 44% say they intend to stick with the brand they’ve switched to.
- Challengers are delivering to expectations. 50% of respondents say challenger brands are seen to provide good value for money.
- Higher consideration favours challenger brands. Especially true for food purchases, with over a half (60%) of shoppers saying that the more invested they are in a purchase, the more likely they are to switch.
- People recognise and respond positively to the Challenger mindset. People recognise and respond positively to the purpose and personality presented by Challengers, particularly younger consumers aged 16-34.
CHALLENGING THE CHALLENGERS
Contact Abby Hartley, Head of Marketing, Initials, [email protected], to request the full report.
About
Jamie is responsible for building one of the fastest-growing independent creative agencies in the UK, which works with leading brands on planning and activation including PepsiCo, Philips, Heineken, Nestlé, Fiat Group and McLaren Automotive. Jamie is also an active member of The Supper Club, which is a leading networking group for 400 growing SMEs around the UK. He is dedicated to drawing on his own experiences to mentor and help other SME’s, providing ideas and solutions to challenges they might face to help them to move forward and grow.
Related Tags
FMCGUsers who viewed this article also looked at:
