Kevin Roberts coined the term “Lovemarks” in 2004, Lovemarks are the higher echelon of the just being a brand, it’s a method that allows your target audiences (in whatever category) to make an emotive connection with your company / product / service, “loyalty without reason”. Love marks invest in far more emotion, mystery, intimacy and the senses rather than fact.

Consumers are not just looking for value, they are looking for inestimable value, an entity within your proposition that will enhance their lives in some format or other, this may sound a bit flouncy, but this is where challenger brands can really come into there own.

Challenger brands are about finding an alternative value or proposition within the category, look at method their entire category (cleaning products) was saturated with “kills 99% of bad bacteria” esk advertising. Eric Ryan (founder of method) understood it would be next to impossible to compete against the leaders with their massive budgets so had to find a way to connect to his audience. He chose to look at the high involvement relationship you have with your home, and how there is a huge consumer trend to make your house more beautiful, both very emotive in their nature. From this method developed a product that had far more naturally derived values, both in look and the product itself. They have also marketed the company using a word-of-mouth philosophy, this may have less of a mass impact but has also helped generate the love and loyalty for the brand.

Having the foresight to create a products that consumer’s love, method has set itself aside from the saturated market place and has seen staggering growth, triple digit in some constituent categories.

If Challengers can find the Love they’re onto a winning recipe.

www.bethehurricane.com – The Challenger Brand Agency (and my employers)