Underdogs are everywhere, and in the world of marketing and advertising they’re called challenger brands. They come in all shapes and sizes and cross every industry and business category. By definition, challenger brands are outmatched by category leaders and that’s often their undoing. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
In The Voice of the Underdog advertising veterans Mike Sullivan and Michael Tuggle explain how challenger brands can turn disadvantage to their favor by using company culture to drive the kind of differentiation that resonates with consumers. Filled with fascinating case studies, entertaining stories, and engaging insights, the book examines the true essence of what makes a company a challenger brand, unveils how successful challengers of all sizes use culture to create extraordinary brand distinction, and finishes with a detailed blueprint for building your own transcendent culture.
“In markets where every competitor looks alike to consumers, true differentiation starts from the inside. Sullivan and Tuggle take that idea one step further and show that the way a company behaves has everything to do with the way it performs as a brand from the inside and out.”
– Wes Bates, Chairman, Stanley Steemer
Loaded with instructive examples from brands both big and small, the authors explain how companies like In-N-Out Burger, First United Bank, Red Bull, REI, and scores more use their company cultures to accomplish more with less. Often outmatched when it comes to advertising and marketing resources, these challengers manage to create unique brand identities that stand up to competitive affronts at every turn.
About LOOMIS:
Founded in 1985, LOOMIS is an award-winning advertising agency specializing in identifying and leveraging strategic advantages for national and regional challenger brands with specific expertise in restaurants, retail, franchising, and healthcare. Learn more at theloomisagency.com.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
MIKE SULLIVAN
Mike Sullivan is president and CEO of LOOMIS, the country’s leading challenger brand advertising agency. For more than 30 years, he’s helped some of the country’s most successful companies build their brands while building his own ad agency brands. Under his leadership, Hadeler Sullivan Ewing was named ADWEEK’s “Hottest Shop in the Southwest,” and at LOOMIS he helped the Agency earn distinction as an Ad Age “Small Agency of the Year.” Driven by Sullivan’s focus on creating strong company culture, LOOMIS has also been recognized for six years as a “Best Place to Work” by both The Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Business Journal. In The Voice of the Underdog, Sullivan draws on his blend of experience building strong brands and great culture and shares his insights about what happens when leaders focus their attention on doing both.
MICHAEL TUGGLE
Michael Tuggle is president of Tuggle Creative Inc. and former Co-Executive Creative Director at LOOMIS. For more than 28 years, Tuggle has used his creative and writing talents to build both category leaders and challenger brands alike including American Airlines, Pepsi, Papa John’s Pizza, Stanley Steemer and Texas Dairy Queen. While he’s been recognized regionally and nationally for his creative work, when Tuggle helped start LOOMIS on day one, his focus was as much on building a company as it was on building a portfolio. That started with building the LOOMIS culture. In The Voice of the Underdog, Tuggle mixes his talent for storytelling with his love for the ad business to create a narrative that inspires and teaches anyone committed to creating a culture that will last.
