In business and in Mario Kart, no one sets out to finish in the middle of the pack. Every company wants to dominate its competition, define its product category, and ultimately finish first on the market share leaderboard.  

That said, even the world’s biggest brands didn’t start out in first place. They fought hard to get there. Most of them started as small or mid-sized businesses, then climbed the ladder with intelligent, strategic decisions.  

From a brand strategy standpoint, embracing your challenger status can be one of the smartest moves you make. 

Embrace Your Underdog Status 

Challengers to the throne actually have many advantages. Market leaders often become complacent. They have a status quo to protect, and that makes it hard for them to adjust to changing market dynamics and customer preferences. Over time they often develop rigid expectations and structures, and they’re rarely incentivized to do things differently.  

Mid-market challengers, however, are more like speedboats than big ships. They need to be scrappy and creative. They see the value in forging deeper connections with customers and pursuing new opportunities in their markets. They’re incentivized to embrace brand strategies that feel more genuine, more human, and more compelling. 

Whether you’re a startup or an established company looking to gain market position, here’s how to turn that middle-of-the-pack starting point into a long-term strategic advantage. 

Understand Customer Pain Points and Motivations 

Building momentum in your market often starts with an “outside-in” approach. That means examining your brand through the lens of the outside world: the value you provide to customers, why they choose your brand over competitors, and why they might opt for competing solutions instead. 

These insights typically come from audience and market research, and they require stepping outside your comfort zone. Maybe your brand’s reputation isn’t as strong as you thought it was. Maybe there are valid reasons why you’re simply treading water in your market. Maybe your customers want things you aren’t currently providing. 

This level of research will give you a better sense of who you are as a brand, what you’re up against in your competitive landscape, and where you want to go. These can be hard truths, but they will help you see your brand from your audience’s perspective.  

Bigger picture, these insights will help inform a critical piece of your brand’s strategy and marketing puzzle: Audience personas, which will guide your strategy and your storytelling. 

Next, Look Inward 

The other big part of creating audience personas comes from your own data. Your web traffic, page views, social interactions, and search behavior will identify what’s capturing attention - and what isn’t. It’s an important first step in refining your content marketing strategy.  

Your internal teams can shed light on what’s been working, what hasn’t, and what avenues have been left unexplored. Sales and marketing teams are particularly helpful in this process, as they know the questions your customers are asking most frequently, and any pain points from customer engagements. 

By combining the hard data from market research with your team’s human perspective, you can build personas that reflect what motivates your audiences and how to engage them effectively. The goal is to create well-rounded, insight-driven profiles of your customers, then create a communications strategy that will truly resonate with them.  

Be Authentically Different 

“Authenticity” has been a buzzword in the marketing world for years, and with good reason: Both Gen Z and Millennial consumers say that authenticity is a deciding factor in the brands they choose to buy from and work for.  

The thing about authenticity is that, by definition, you can’t fake it. For a challenger brand, that means truly connecting with customers, understanding their needs, and aligning their wish lists with your product strategy and messaging – in a way that’s natural to your business. 

Creativity is one of the most powerful and cost-effective tools at your disposal – especially in the era of generative AI. More and more brands are using AI to accelerate content ideation and creation--and that’s fine--but it takes nuance, emotion, and authenticity to resonate on a human level. 

The brands that take the time to understand their customers, lean into empathy, and infuse their messaging with heart and personality will build deeper, more meaningful connections with customers. In the process, they’ll win the authenticity war.  

Explore the Entire Media Universe 

Every company wants a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times, but that doesn’t always drive the best ROI. Mainstream media coverage is great, but it sometimes isn’t the most effective way to connect with specific audiences and drive sales.  

Ultimately, today’s consumers expect a dialogue and a direct connection with your brand. This can take shape in a lot of different ways.  

Trade publications and trade shows help you reach highly targeted audiences that are more likely to convert into sales. Social media, podcasts, and webinars can give you greater control over your messaging while fostering bi-directional conversations.  

Ultimately, a mix of owned, earned, and paid content across video, audio, and social platforms will increase your chances of boosting brand visibility and audience engagement. 

Get Integrated 

Elevating your market position doesn’t come easy. It takes a whole lot of strategic groundwork: Conducting market research, gathering internal insights, creating audience personas, honing your brand messaging, devising a media strategy, developing multimedia content for your social and owned campaigns, and assessing results to identify areas for improvement.  

At Airfoil, we specialize in integrated PR and marketing strategies that bring all those moving pieces together into a unified, cohesive approach. Our team excels at aligning your goals, messaging, and audience insights, ensuring that every touchpoint enhances your overall brand strategy.  

Are you ready to explore your growth opportunities? Let’s talk about how Airfoil can put you in position to succeed.