Adam Morgan

Mark Barden

Now is a bookabout everyday, practical inventiveness, designed for the constrained times in which we live. It describes how to take the kinds of issues that all of us face today lack of time, money, resources, attention, know-how and see in them the opportunity for transformation of one self and one's organization's fortunes.

How To Transform Your Limitations Into Advantages, and Why It's Everyone's Business

A Beautiful Constraint

"Eating the Big Fish is on fire with ideas. Best in the marketplace." -Steve Hayden, President, Worldwide Brand Services, Ogilvy & Mather "In 1986, the Levi's? Dockers? brand challenged the biggest fish in the men's apparel sea, Haggar. And we beat the pants off them! In his new book, Adam Morgan adroitly presents many of the same fundamental marketing principles which worked so well for us. A must read for marketing professionals." -Steve Goldstein, V.P. Marketing & Research, Levi's Brand U.S.A. Years ago, Avis was a little fish in the car rental industry. Fearing the company would be swallowed up if they didn't "try harder," Avis boldly announced its #2 status to the world through advertising-and the rest is history. Why has this approach become a marketing legend? Because there are more people who can relate to being #2, 3, or even 4, than can claim they know what it's like to be the Big Fish. There are plenty of little fish out there, circling in schools around the brand leaders they so desperately wish to surpass. Squeezed by new competition, a retreating consumer, and aggressive retailing practices, marketers of second- and third-rank brands are struggling to survive in a business environment where they have fewer resources and less control than ever before. But instead of watching-and copying-every move the Big Fish makes, these "Challenger" brands need their own set of marketing rules if they have any hopes of staying afloat and competing effectively against the leader. Eating the Big Fish is the first book that sets out to define those rules. Adam Morgan offers an innovative mental and strategic framework for those who find themselves in this new, hostile middle ground, looking for aggressive growth against the market leader. Morgan, the Joint European Planning Director of TBWA (the international advertising agency behind the campaigns for such brands as Absolut vodka, Apple computers, and Sony Playstation), has examined in detail forty of the most successful Challenger brands of the last ten years -new or relaunched brands which have achieved rapid growth (and fame) with limited marketing resources. He outlines the reasons why Challengers must think differently in order to survive, offering hands-on advice, plentiful examples, and invaluable information to help a Challenger learn how to swim out of the shadow of the Big Fish. At the heart of the book are the Eight Credos of Challenger Brands -Morgan's analysis of the common marketing strands that these Challengers seem to share, which range in scope from the need to project who you are and what you believe in (#2, Build a Lighthouse Identity) to insights about the organizational structure and focus in such companies and brands (#8, Become Idea-Centered, Rather Than Consumer-Centered). Morgan fully analyzes each Credo, discussing in detail the marketing strategy and behavior of the specific Challenger brands that have shaped the rules. He provides case studies that include both his agency's clients and other well-known brands, such as Lexus, Oakley, Fox TV, Energizer, Virgin Atlantic, Swatch, Nissan, and more. Morgan then draws the Credos together into a "Challenger Strategic Program" that can be applied to the reader's own market and brand challenge, offering a proposed outline for a two-day Off-Site Program that will attempt to kick-start the Challenger process for a core group within any marketing or management team. In addition, Morgan looks at the great Challengers of the last ten years who have gone on to become brand leaders, and shows how even the rules of brand leadership have changed -why staying #1 now means, in fact, thinking and behaving like a #2. Anyone can follow a leader. It takes a smart company to go up against the Big Fish, and Morgan's innovative, strategic program will show even the littlest fish how to make a meal out of the competition.

How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders

Eating the Big Fish

Who says you have to travel far from home to go on a great hike? In Best Hikes Near Chicago author Adam Morgan details the best hikes within an hour's drive of the greater Chicago area perfect for the urban and suburbanite hard-pressed to find great outdoor activities close to home. Each featured hike includes detailed hike specs, a brief hike description, trailhead location, directional cues, and a detailed map.

Best Hikes Near Chicago

Most marketing and branding books fall into one of two camps: either they are about leaders or they assume that brands can be managed by process alone. The Pirate Inside is different. It forwards the idea that brands are about people, and Challenger Brands are driven by a certain kind of person in a certain kind of way. Challenger Brands don't rely on CEOs or founders, but on the people within the organization whose personal qualities and approach to what they do make the difference between whether the brand turns to gold or falls to dust. In line with this thinking, The Pirate Inside forwards two key questions: what does it take to be the driver or guardian of a successful Challenger Brand, and what are the demands made by this on character and corporate culture? Building on his answers, Adam Morgan then explores the critical issue of whether big, multi-brand companies can create Challenger micro-climates within their companies, and the benefits that they might achieve by doing so.

Adam Morgan

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