Tips from the challengers.

Yesterday l attended a Bread & Jam and Copy Club event where I was lucky enough to hear from Nicola Matthews, Tony’s Chocolonely, Kasia Bigda Mr Lee’s and Charlotte Moulson Olivia’s about building a challenger brand. Here are the key take-outs:

• Your marketing plan should be strategic and objective focused and seek to answer your business goals. Think through every activation and initiative via the lens of 'what do you want it to achieve'

• Sampling, getting a product into the hands of your customers is absolutely vital to building awareness and consideration-"eating is believing". This might not see immediate results but over time it will build brand traction

• Human interaction is key- speaking and listening to customers directly is vital for getting feedback and insight.

• In-person, ‘impactful encounters’ are powerful ways to bring complex stories to life and recruit long term brand advocates, in turn, these people will spread your message

• ‘Regular people’, not just ‘official’ influencers can be powerful advocates in telling people about your brand so consider them in gifting opportunities

• Build a cohesive and consistent brand experience across all touch-points. The story behind why the chocolate bar has unequal sized pieces is a reflection that the profits in the chocolate industry are unfairly divided

• Retailers want to see your marketing plans to mitigate risk- results and how you are intending to promote and support the product

• If something doesn't go to plan and goes wrong, hold up your hands be honest and transparent and admit your mistakes.

• Most importantly, don’t take yourself too seriously and have fun.

If you are a purpose-drive challenger brand that is looking to stand-out and scale, get in touch to discuss how we can help build your brand. We take the tried and tested methods for building memorable brands and then rip up the rule books to build brands that get remembered for all the right reasons!