By: M4G Bureau
Last updated : June 03, 2020 10:06 am
Brands that embrace their inner underdog have built-in advantages, asserts Branding, Marketing, and Communications Consultant Lee Rafkin
But here’s the thing. Challengers can become leaders, especially when leaders become complacent. Sometimes, leaders are so invested in protecting their profitable cash cows that they become too cautious and fail to innovate. Other times, success makes leaders slow-moving and resistant to change. When this happens, leaders become vulnerable, challengers can leapfrog leaders, and a new order can emerge.
History is full of challengers that have taken this route, including brands like Apple, Netflix, Tesla, and Airbnb. These challengers found a different way, celebrated their outsider status, and turned it into a competitive advantage. They ‘embraced their inner underdog’ and became brand leaders themselves.
Some readers may remember the TV cartoon classic, “Underdog”. In his day job, Underdog was just a regular guy (or regular pup) who worked as a shoeshine man at the local newsstand. But when danger lurked, Underdog transformed into a rhyming, flying canine superhero. Everyone rooted for Underdog. He was the coolest.
The underdog narrative is as old as history itself. We identify with the underdog because we see ourselves in his or her struggle. Underdog stories are a core part of our collective American identity, from Cinderella to the Wizard of Oz, from the American Revolution to the American Dream. We enjoy unexpected outcomes and dramatic cliffhangers. When you think about it, even college basketball’s Final Four is a great underdog story.
Back in the 1960s, Avis embraced its inner underdog to take on #1 rental car company Hertz. The Avis brand manifesto “Number 2-ism,” and its tagline “We Try Harder,” successfully positioned the brand as a hungrier, scrappier David battling Goliath. Avis couldn’t afford to take a single customer for granted. Avis tried harder, because as the #2, it had to.
Brands that embrace their inner underdog have built-in advantages. They are more relatable. Their quest is familiar. They are given the benefit of the doubt. They command more loyalty. They have the customer cheering for them.
As the Avis manifesto said, it didn’t invent “Number 2-ism” and anyone is free to use it. Agile challengers, take note.
Lee Rafkin is a branding, marketing, and communications consultant based in New York. In addition to advising leading brands like Discovery Networks, Estée Lauder, Medtronic, Nestlé, and Pepsico, he named and branded the U.S. out of home organisations OUTFRONT, Geopath, and Boldsite Media. Lee can be reached at lee@rafkin.com.