How to Build a Culture of Constant Reinvention, How Unilever is Fighting the Challengers, and an Interview with an Author of 'Jobs to Be Done'
Eric Fulwiler
Co-Founder & CEO of Rival, ex CMO of 11:FS and MD of VaynerMedia - bringing the challenger playbook to incumbent brands
Deep Dive?
??? Driving change in an organization or market is one thing. Creating a culture that can inherently and consistently drive change over time is an entirely different and much more daunting task.?
The ability to adapt over time to take advantage of change rather than be taken advantage of is at the core of what makes a successful challenger. (Share this on Twitter)
Changing once is better than not changing at all. But the consumer, cultural, and competitive landscape is constantly changing, and at a rate that’s only increasing. Expectations are evolving, attention is flowing into new channels, new trends are rising and falling, and more and more noise is being flung at consumers. It’s essential that marketing leaders build cultures of constant reinvention into their teams so that their brands and messaging maintain their effectiveness over time.?
Constant reinvention comes down to three things: self-awareness, feedback, and speed.?
When you think about self-awareness, you think about it in the context of an individual. It’s in the name of the term after all: “self”. But the reasons self-awareness is critical to our personal growth are the same reasons it's critical to organizational growth. You need to know who you are in order to know how you might need to change. Ask yourself if you really know what your customers and wider consumers really think about your brand and marketing. Chances are there’s an opportunity to grow your organizational self-awareness.?
Once you’ve identified the need for greater self-awareness, you need to start collecting the inputs that will give it to you - you need feedback. Start with your own team and make sure you’ve created a culture where feedback is sought out and appreciated. But also think about how you can get clear, constant feedback on your marketing. Are you listening to what your customers are saying? Are you turning data into real insights? Feedback is the raw material for growth - collect it, refine it, and pour it into your team’s engine.?
Speed is the single biggest advantage challengers have over incumbents. The ability to make decisions and get to market faster provides a massive, fundamental advantage in everything challengers do. Speed lets you capture more mind and market share, especially in new spaces, but it also gives you more feedback on what’s working and what’s not. It makes you smarter faster, which in times of change is key to winning. Think about how you and your team can make decisions faster. Take process out where you can, give people more freedom (even to fail), make that cycle learning and growth spin faster.?
Make time to assess and improve these three dimensions in your marketing team: self-awareness, feedback, and speed. They are the foundation for constant reinvention which is the flywheel of long-term growth.?
Further reading/listening on this topic?
Challengers in Action?
?? CPG (or FMCG for our friends in the UK) is an industry where the challenger/incumbent battle is and has been playing out fiercely for the last couple decades. As the barriers to entry, manufacturing, and distribution have been lowered by new technology thousands of challenger brands have flooded the market and successfully stolen market share from the big incumbents in the space. There’s a ton to learn form the challengers that have succeed, but it’s also interesting to watch how the incumbents are fighting back - sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Unilever has been making noise recently about its plan to defend against challengers in the deodorant market like Wild and Fussy.?
?? Nike is an incumbent brand that seems to be successfully thinking and acting like a challenger in the NFT and Web3 space. Here’s a great overview of how they’re doing it, and a couple examples of what they’re doing well.?
??Celsius is a challenger energy drink brand that’s been steadily taking mind and market share from the original category creators like Red Bull and Monster. They’ve grown quickly on the back of a social and influencer-heavy marketing strategy over the last couple years. Although now they might be facing issues with the side effects of their product…which just goes to show - the best marketing is a great product, but great marketing can’t grow a bad product.?
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Grab Bag
?? Pinterest is taking a stand against climate misinformation in advertising. (Amazingly, they are the only digital platform to have done this!)
?? Our friends over at JamJar investments have raised a new fund. JamJar specialises in backing challenger brands in Europe. So, if you are a challenger brand in Europe you should get in touch (let us know if you want an intro!). If you’re not, you should check out their philosophy on finding and funding challenger brands.?
??? If you haven’t come across the NFT Cannon from a16z, you’re welcome. Bookmark it and start working your way through it over the next couple months/years. Hopefully you’re all still doing your 15 mins a day of NFT/Web3 reading!?
Rival this Week
???The “jobs to be done” framework is THE single most important concept and tool for modern marketers to understand and apply to how they think about building brand and driving growth of their businesses.?
So, it's a true honour to have Bob Moesta, one of the architects and authors of that framework, on Scratch this week.
It was truly educational, enlightening, and invigorating to hear about Bob’s experience and advice on how to understand and apply JTBD to marketing.?
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Challenge of the Week
??How will you bring more self-awareness, feedback, and speed into your team this week?