BURDEN OF THE LEADER … WHAT BRANDS NEED TO DO TO MAINTAIN LEADERSHIP STATUS

by Kurt on July 6, 2013

A little bit of marketing 1-o-1 today, based on a conversation I had last week about brand leadership and what I would call ‘brand determination’ (i.e. a brand showing its confidence).

Let me start with a contextual anecdote. I used to have a manager a long long time ago that told me ‘Kurt, you are taking on a big responsibility. Brand [X] has been a market leader for years. But now, other players are invading our space. The only way is down…make sure that ride goes slowly.’ -HANG ON A SECOND! That’s not the kind of ‘inspirational speech’ you want to give to your marketers, right?

Let’s drill that story down a little bit …

1-What is a (market) leader?

A leader in its category

A leader in consumers’ minds

A leaders in $s

Brand leaderhip ‘status’ is mostly a combination of the above: high regard and/or high share and/or love status.

2-When is brand leadership threatened?

The arrival of new competitors

The introduction of new technology in the category (or outside of it, but with applications in the category)

Question often is: do you see threat coming; and …how do you know?? Well, that’s relatively easy, but you need to build ‘systems’ to ‘listen’ to what happens to your category: read the market, discover the trends, feel the market, talk to consumers; i.e. the usual suspects. See previous posts on this blog.

Here’s the risk: once you are a big leader, with a big gap vs competition, you tend to become complacent, you can’t cover all possible angles any more, you think your fans will be loyal forever (and hence you forget to ‘fight’ for your loyalty, you forget to ‘thank’ them for being with you!)

3-How do you maintain leadership. i.e. continue to win?

First of all, focus on your loyalists and make them even more loyal. Reward their loyalty, and make sure they can spread the word.

Find a new edge

Find a new audience

Become more effective

Most importantly > create brand elements that can not be copied; give consumers true ‘experiences’ !

Net net, it’s more than just winning on the shop floor. Investing in your brand and brand loyalty is a long term game that ultimately will bring in those dollars, and make you stay on top!

EXAMPLE

Levi’s invented jeans. They were the uncontested leader for a long time. But then rested on their laurels. They ignored reality …and… guess what? DIESEL enters and creates a brand with great imagery, that is aspirational & cool; a real brand that on top of that is innovative (they had cooler jeans AND cooler shops). Levi’s sales plummeted until they realised that a big fix was needed! By that time they had lost billions in sales.

Maintaining leadership is about showing leadership, and about being flexible to adapt!

Here’s the thing: consumers EXPECT their favorite brands to act with confidence (so: show grandeur in your communication), to speak to them (so: maximise your 360 media / be in all touchpoints), and to show them new ways (so: innovate). Nothing is more damaging for you as a leader-brand than to assume a challenger role or to show fear or irrational behavior in the face of [new] competition. In this regard it is important to display ENERGY while you go about it. Nothing scares off competitors more than a company that is always on the move, always prepared, always ready to fight, always ready to invest, that goes beyond the ‘average’ ! As always, it’s about about mind-set, it’s about the lens you use to look at things. With that come a set of belief systems, that lead to an attitude and a behavior. That gives you half of the victory.

Also … show how you got to that leadership, what made it happen, what are the ‘greatest hits of the brand’! Consumers love it when big brands play their old tunes (so to speak). This requires a little lateral thinking, to the music world! Music artists get famous on a few hits only. Once they are at the top, they thrive and success continues. But those second and third albums never do so well as the one that made them really big. And then comes the magic: the “greatest hits” album. Boom! Sold out, again. Why? This is what brought their fans in the footprint in the first place. They WANT to hear that again, because this is what they LOVE about the artist. I think the same principle applies to brands, brand communication and brand innovation: BRING BACK THOSE GREATEST HITS!

In summary:

Assume the leadership position; in everything that you do.
Act accordingly.
Innovate.
Shine.
Play your greatest (brand) hits!
Do!

Go lead!

Let me end with (the overly quoted) Sun Tzu : when you have the high ground there is no better place to be … Back to my first sentence: it’s not about going downhill slowly, it’s about reaffirming your position. You can hold the high ground for centuries! Better think of that!

Off you go!

 

Thanks for stopping by and reading this article! Let me know what you think – here, on twitter (@kurtfrenier), on facebook, or on LinkedIn. Kurt.

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