The Challenger Brand mindset & the Mythology of the Underdog

For someone who has challenged dominant brands, encountered the challenges of creating new categories, and finally created new challenges for himself as an author, Harish Bhat, Brand Custodian, Tata Sons, knows a thing or two about the Challenger mindset. What he hasn’t shared yet, is his take on why the timeless mystique of the challenger myth continues to hold its allure. In this freewheeling chat, he wears his ‘Storyteller’ hat and draws parallels between the Underdog mythology and Brand strategies.?

Adrian Terron:?Why has the underdog mythology obsessed us since time immemorial? Why do consumers cheer for brands that are underdogs???????

Harish Bhat:?The Underdog is relatable to all of us - even if we are achievers in one aspect of life, many of us are underdogs in another part of life. Therefore, underdogs resonate with us. Underdogs establish a sense of fairness that David can compete with Goliath and still win. The story of David versus Goliath has fascinated us over hundreds of years. There is no surprise in the top dog winning but when the Underdog wins there is a sense of fairness and hence it evokes a lot happiness and resonance in consumers. You see underdog brands with fire in their belly winning against MNCs and huge competitors which have become less agile, so I think that that’s also one of the reasons why.

Adrian Terron:?It is true however that people also like winners – we like to be fans of the winning team or the most popular team – however, when you aren’t the leader, drawing on your experience in Tanishq- when you were battling the hegemony of regional jewellers – how do you get the consumer on your side?

Harish Bhat:?When you are not the leader, do not try to play a leader’s game. Play your own challenger’s game and try to win your customers’ hearts. Two such lessons from my life: At Tata Tea we did not play the??market leader’s game. We launched branded tea in poly packs instead of cartons, which were the convention at that time.??We packed tea at the gardens and shipped to consumers “Garden-fresh tea”, and we actually invented the concept of ‘Garden freshness’ in tea. We built deep customer knowledge on tea and that enabled us to service the whole of India with twenty-plus blends for different parts of the country. We also built??strong sales and distribution in a very different way from what the other MNCs were doing, through very strong relationships with trade.?

Similarly, in the early days of Tanishq, we did not play the family jeweller’s game. We were clear right from the start that we are a very transparent brand, a modern contemporary brand. We offered the customer modern versions of traditional jewellery, which young Indian women like to wear. We also offered the customer several innovations, whether it was the unique Tanishq exchange programme or the Golden Harvest programme.?

Adrian Terron: Once underdogs become top dogs, they need to find new ways to maintain, enhance and challenge their mindset. How did you and the team at Tata Tea and Tanishq fight these battles? Going back, please take us through the fascinating story that you were living through in those years?

Harish Bhat: I think a lot of it was primarily fuelled by our belief - one needs to have belief and conviction that you have set the target right for yourself. So, when Tanishq was a small brand and I was the head of retail and marketing, we were pretty small, but we wanted to become the most desirable jewellery brand for India and there was very strong belief in making that future happen.I recall that at every Business associates’ meet and at every team meet, bringing in that belief and conviction was a priority for us. The question is – how do you nurture that belief and conviction in the team and ensure that belief builds a constant momentum towards our desired destination..

?Similar is the case of Tata Tea, where we were a marginal player at that time, in the branded tea market. We were very small and the market leader had a 40%+ market share, across their Brooke Bond and Lipton tea portfolio. Yet the belief was strong that we can beat them in the market. I Still remember my boss at Tata Tea had a screen saver that said, "Drink a pint of Unilever blood every day”. And apparently, we drank enough pints because Tata Tea was able to make very good progress – it grew to double-digit market share and eventually became the volume leader in the market. But it took us some time to get to that stage. So, I believe the single most important thing is conviction, as that gives you consistent fire in the belly.?

?It is important to realize that, in the beginning you don't have all the answers. So, strategy evolves as we move along, and we become larger and wiser.. But belief and conviction are at the root of this, and each one of us needs to have these strong pillars to move us towards our goals.

Adrian Terron: Being a challenger has more advantages than one would have presumed earlier. However, does this narrative sometimes hold us back from recognising our true strengths?

Harish Bhat: It is very important to recognise our true strengths, the deep knowledge we have of the category, the deep knowledge we have of the consumer. We must remember that often challenger brands take greater risks than established brands. They have smaller teams that are highly energized and compact and agile. These are some of the strengths that challengers have. I don't think challengers should ever take their strengths lightly.?

But challenger brands must be paranoid about gaining in the marketplace, because market leaders have the advantage of scale, often deep pockets, and perhaps many years of learning as well.

Adrian Terron: Let's take that lesson and pull it down to an individual level. In our own lives, how do you think we can use the underdog mindset to drive ourselves and our teams and organizations to greater heights??

Harish Bhat: In my personal experience , I think it is important to consistently??keep an aspirational benchmark ahead of us, in whatever we do??Let me take an example from my own life.??Alongside my day job as a marketer, I also aspire to write well, I write two regular columns, have also written a few books.??Yet I always have an underdog mindset when I embark on my writing.

This is because there are so many writers who are far more accomplished than I am.??For instance, I greatly admire Gabriel?García Márquez?– his novels are extraordinary. I keep reading his book?One Hundred Years of Solitude?every year, to look at the beauty of his writing and the meaning he is able to convey to his readers so simply and powerfully ; and I remind myself how far away I am from those heights of perfection. That constantly goads me to do better in my writing, because I realise that there is so much headroom to evolve and grow..

In the context of an organisation, you may have become a larger brand, but the opportunity to grow is always so much more. You have to bear in mind that however successful or experienced you are, continuously looking at the headroom for growth is one way of keeping yourself moving towards a higher aspiration.