Cheat Code: Why challenger brands should target the untargeted
Instead of targeting the same old (young) audiences, go loud and proud after the forgotten segments, which market leaders consciously or subconsciously neglect, says Dan Monheit, CEO of Hardhat, the agency built for challenger brands.
You’re an ambitious challenger brand in the hotly contested craft beer category. When you first launched, growth was explosive, but things have started to slow. You’ve been diligently following ‘best practices, ’ but your ‘6040’ ads don’t seem to be converting the way they used to. If anything, they may be doing the dreaded ‘category job’, which we all know only serves the market leader.
As you sit down to map out how to get back in the fast lane, you know there’s only one place for a marketer’s marketer like you to start: Segment, Target, Position – or, as the locals call it, STP.
STP is step one for any modern, five-star marketing plan. Unfortunately, like so much of today’s ‘best practice marketing,’ STP works particularly well for one very specific type of brand; the type that already dominates a category and can continue to do so by spending more than anyone else.
