If you’re not the leader, you’re a follower. There can only be one company at the top. Everyone else is a challenger. So how does a challenger brand compete against a brand that can significantly outspend them and already has brand awareness and market share?
Dallas advertising veterans Mike Sullivan and Michael Tuggle tackle that question in their newly released book, The Voice of the Underdog®: How Challenger Brands Create Distinction by Thinking Culture First.
“There’s something energizing about being discounted,” explained Mike Sullivan, president & CEO of The LOOMIS Agency, the country’s leading challenger brand advertising agency. “True challengers don’t follow the norm. They’re disruptors. Company culture is the most fundamental advantage challenger brands possess. And it doesn’t matter how large or small the company is in their market. Putting culture first is actually transformative.”
Company culture is the sum total of an organization’s behaviors, beliefs, values and expression. Culture is communicated through countless exchanges and in a number of ways, most of which are unspoken. Individual and organizational behavior are driven by company culture.
“Using the power of company culture to drive brand performance requires a shift in thinking starting at the top,” continues Sullivan. “In the book, we explore the way leaders can intentionally cultivate cultures that support their outward brand expression. It starts with an honest assessment of the current environment, exposing gaps that need to be closed, and a plan for making important and sometimes difficult changes. The book concludes with a seven-step process for building the kind of culture that challenger brands can use to create the kind of authentic differentiation that drives brand success.”
Challenger brands can’t always spend their way to success with big ad campaigns like category leaders. Instead, they start with business strategy and identify opportunities for disruption. Challenger strategies are born of unique differences fueled by an organic power to attract an audience.
Challengers can wreak havoc on competitors by showing up in a way that’s anything but expected. Challengers take consumers and competitors by surprise, which in turn provokes something every marketer desperately wants and needs—a response. Love them or hate them, challengers will not be ignored.
In addition to the book, the charismatic duo of Sullivan and Tuggle have launched a monthly podcast series. The first episode features David Emerald, author of The Power of TED: The Empowerment Dynamic and 3 Vital Questions. Future guests include First United Bank CEO Greg Massey (available the week of June 7); and Publishing Concepts CEO Drew Clancy (available the week of July 12).
In each podcast, the hosts and guests discuss culture and talk about relevant case studies, share entertaining stories from Sullivan and Tuggle’s 30 years in advertising, and offer engaging insights into how successful challenger brands use culture to create extraordinary brand distinction.
“A brand is what people think it’s like to do business with you,” Sullivan shared on the inaugural podcast. “Think about Chick-fil-A. How they treat their employees directly affects how the employees treat their customers. How the customer feels about the brand keeps them coming back. The culture drives the brand experience at the point of impact. This link between culture and brand performance is the reason a company like Chick-fil-A dramatically outperforms its nearest competitor across all metrics that matter, from service to brand perception to sales.”
Download a free copy of the book’s first chapter at theloomisagency.com. The Voice of the Underdog: How Challenger Brands Create Distinction by Thinking Culture First is available online and in bookstores, including Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, and Audible.com. The Voice of the Underdog podcast is available on all outlets.
About the Authors
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 six consecutive 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 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 Dairy Queen restaurants in Texas. 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.
