Are you a smaller brand, threatened by the superior competitive positions of larger, better-funded competitors?

Are you facing a situation where style, social conscience, popular culture or a big shift in demographics will make growth more difficult?

Are you a brand in a rapidly changing category?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are a Challenger Brand. You are unlike the category leader in position, perception and resources. You cannot succeed simply by trying to re-create the relationship the category leader enjoys with the consumer.

To compete and win, a Challenger Brand must change the criteria by which it is evaluated by the consumer.

GKV believes the following four brand behaviors are critical to short-circuiting the status quo of consumer awareness, preference and purchase habits created by the category leaders and helping Challenger Brands win on their own terms:

1. Create strong symbols of re-evaluation — icons, events, ads, innovative communication strategies — designed specifically to prompt quick re-evaluation by consumers and puncture their autopilot behavior.
2. Create an emotional connection to the consumer, a sense of relevance, understanding and common ground that the category leader cannot match.
3. Sacrifice the pursuit of secondary communications objectives until your primary objective has been achieved.
4. Live your brand inside. Understand the importance of on-brand customer service as a competitive advantage.

Everything we do at GKV is designed to promote these four tenets of Challenger Brand behavior. Click on each for more info.