A challenger brand is a company or product brand in an industry that is not the category leader. They can neither be called a market leader nor a niche brand.
There are famous challenger brand stories in:
Mobile segment:
OnePlus One trying to convert the Apple and Samsung users to One plus.
The company has had a great opportunity in India to make good products and to use the e-commerce model to disrupt the traditional brands.
They are very clear on their positioning and market share and know they can bring value to the costumers by striving to make the best android flagship phone.
People liked OnePlus so much was because of the use of sandstone instead of polycarbonate, used by their competitors, for their body for the phone.
It is about the level of detail and understanding of design and innovation that made the difference.
Consumer goods segment:
Ghadi Detergent a lesser known brand or rather product made difference a few years back and Detergents as a category are already mature with extremely high penetration.
Ghadi Detergent played on its strength, delivered the product at a great price and also communicated the product in a way that it resonated with a very large consumer base.
The product also has innovations piped up and it almost shook the whole detergent industry.
Food segment:
The Delhi based Bagrry’s has created subcategories like oats and muesli but what is different and how does it disrupts the segment?
It created oats into staples forms of Atta, suji, and rava, poha, etc. which attracted consumers on large scale as they are becoming health conscious.
Bagrry’s has a new innovation up its sleeve and is coming out with something called as Corn Flakes Plus which has 2x fiber and is a lot healthier than a normal cereal breakfast.
Challengers mostly share common characteristics such as an entrepreneur’s hunger to win along with single person decision-making, and being free of the pressures faced by most MNCs on margins, profit, shareholder return etc.
