Webinar Recap | Owning Your Category: Challenging Leaders & Defending Your Position

Brands can no longer afford to rely solely on traditional metrics like profitability and market share to gauge success.

In this recent webinar, industry experts Dennis Hahn (Chief Strategy Officer at Liquid Agency), Edgar Baum (CEO of Avasta), and Dipanjan Chatterjee (VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester) discuss strategies for measuring and building brand momentum, including the Liquid x Avasta Challenger Index’s new approach.

The Challenger Index uses customer insights—lived experiences and expectations of brands—to assess future brand success across key B2C and B2B sectors. It empowers brand leaders to better understand their share of the market and where there are opportunities to expand.

The panelists discuss how maintaining brand relevance demands more than basic product quality; it requires a holistic approach to brand strategy, customer interactions, and internal culture. Brands that continuously innovate and align their brand experiences with customer expectations are positioned to lead within their categories—shaping the future rather than reacting to it.

The panelists highlight how brands like Nike and Starbucks have managed to defend their leadership while facing fierce competition. These examples show that while established brands have the advantage of familiarity, new challengers are setting their own standards of success.

Whether a brand is an established leader or an emerging challenger, the takeaway is clear: remaining proactive, adaptable, and closely attuned to both customer and market dynamics is fuel for sustainable brand momentum.

What would you say is the difference between a challenger brand and a challenged brand?

A “challenged” brand is one that finds itself defending its position or trying to overcome obstacles. For example, in B2B AI, some brands like IBM and SAP are currently challenged as they struggle to maintain their leadership from a market size perspective. However, there are challenger brands, like Salesforce and Qlik, that are innovating quickly and gaining traction. In the buyer’s mind, these challengers are disrupting the status quo and capturing future purchase intent. So, it’s also a mindset—some market leaders, like Netflix, adopt a challenger mindset to stay relevant by disrupting themselves even when they don’t have to.

It’s easy to view this through a simple “David vs. Goliath” lens, but we quickly realize it’s more nuanced. For example: Starbucks, the incumbent brand in the U.S. takeout coffee category, is a challenger brand in China. Similarly, Amazon is a giant but still faces challenges in entering certain new markets such as healthcare. There’s a lot of nuance; to stay relevant, brands must continually adopt a challenging mindset and embrace creative disruption.

What opportunities are there for brands to leverage the Challenger Index to refine their strategy for 2025?

We’ve seen brands use the The Challenger Index to assess where they have a “license to play” versus where they may have overestimated their opportunities. There might be a multi-million or multi-billion dollar segment of the market from which they’d love revenue, but they don’t have license to it because they’re not relevant in those areas. For instance, Nike dominates about three quarters of the athletic footwear market, but in 25% of it they are the challenger and striving for relevance. They can’t use the same strategies to reach that final 25% that they use for the other 75%, because they are fundamentally different segments.

Beyond identifying opportunities, we’re seeing people use Challenger Index data to understand the share of the market that actually matches a strategy that they can execute based on the interrelationship between their product, marketing, experience, and loyalty. Because we know the composition of the buyers whose insights we’ve included—demographics, purchasing power, industry, seniority— we offer an advantage that is absent from a lot of other studies that we’ve seen that focus on just one aspect of brand or value.

What industries are poised for disruption based on these new dynamics?

Instead of listing industries, it’s more useful to examine the indicators that show if an industry is at risk. For example, Blockbuster was financially successful right before its decline, and it didn’t detect impending disruption. By analyzing leading versus lagging indicators, like a slowdown in category momentum, industries can better predict when they’re vulnerable to disruption. This methodical, analytical approach helps identify areas most at risk.

Every category is being challenged in some way, even if it’s slow-moving. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize the change because it’s not always happening at light speed like the changes in B2B AI in recent years. Even a highly regulated category like banking has changed and evolved quite a lot. There are also many less-regulated competitors in the category, like FinTech apps or bank alternatives, that banks need to keep in mind as they evolve. Categories are moving at different speeds, but it’s important to keep a “windshield view” of buyer sentiment to gauge shifts in brand momentum.

Understanding the timing of purchases (in both B2C and B2B) is also critical. For example, Rivian built a strong brand in the electric vehicles marketplace, but it didn’t match the purchasing timeline of their buyer base. As a result, their future outlook is strong, but the fundamentals of the business couldn’t keep up (hence their bankruptcy). A major challenge when setting strategy is accounting for actual time versus obsessing about the value of the opportunity. It’s essential to consider (as the Challenger Index does) how much of that opportunity value is actually available in a given quarter or year.

Can you discuss any patterns among brands that leverage employee culture as a market advantage? For example Southwest Airlines, REI, and Chick-fil-A.

When most people think of brands, they tend to think of marketing. But brands are built by the entire enterprise. The whole business contributes to brand equity, and that’s what can get lost on some people. Buyers will look to the employees of an organization and make judgments on whether that brand has good people, invests in research and development, innovates well, and more.

The employees—especially the frontline employees at some of the brands you mentioned— are a key part of the brand experience. If your brand is promising something to a customer, your people better understand what that promise is. If they don’t, how can they deliver on it at the end of the day?

What should brands do that feel strong in their category but aren’t showing up in reports?

Often, brands in the top 5–10 in market share aren’t showing up as challengers because they lack permission from the market to provide future solutions. These brands must understand their target customers and see if they still hold relevance with them. This involves looking at factors beyond market share, such as consumer expectations and competitive benchmarks.

Salience is crucial. A brand needs to be top-of-mind for consumers in relevant categories. Take Dairy Queen—people think of it for ice cream, but not as a meal option. Without salience, it’s hard for a brand to break into new consumption occasions.

You conducted a deep brand audit around messaging, language, and value proposition. What is a common mistake being made by these brands?

One mistake we frequently see is that brands often talk about what they want to say, not what the customer actually cares about. They think, ‘Here’s why we’re great,’ instead of thinking, ‘Here’s what you need and how we deliver that.’ It’s a fundamental misalignment. I think one of the main insights we’ve gained from our research is that focusing on your customer’s priorities—solving their challenges, speaking their language—is what resonates most. Without that, the message, even if it’s flashy, just doesn’t land. It’s more noise than connection.

Another common mistake is a lack of simplicity in messaging. In some industries, especially complex ones like tech or finance, brands tend to use jargon or overly technical language that doesn’t connect emotionally. Customers often just want to know, ‘What’s in it for me?’ or ‘How will this make my life better?’ If the answer to those questions isn’t clear, then all that intricate messaging work might be wasted.

What are some of the trends in brand loyalty programs that really stand out in today’s market?

Loyalty programs today are evolving beyond just points or discounts. Consumers are looking for genuine experiences and emotional connections, and they value programs that recognize them as individuals. Personalization is key—like Netflix or Spotify recommendations that feel almost custom-made for each user. This sort of recognition fosters a strong bond because customers feel seen. We’re also seeing a shift to loyalty programs that allow customers to engage with the brand beyond just transactions. They might gain points for sharing feedback, posting about the brand, or joining in community events.

Flexibility is also important. A lot of programs today allow people to choose their rewards or even use points across multiple brands. Take Starbucks, for example—they’ve introduced new rewards options, so loyal customers have more choice on how they redeem their points. This kind of flexibility builds a stronger connection because the program feels like it’s built around the customer’s lifestyle, not the other way around.

What steps can brands take to make sure they come across as authentic?

Authenticity is about transparency and aligning with your values consistently. It’s not enough to just say what your values are; you have to live them out in every part of your brand experience, from how you treat employees to how you communicate with customers. For example, REI closing on Black Friday to encourage people to enjoy the outdoors isn’t just a marketing ploy—it’s a true expression of their brand’s values. When a brand takes a stand on an issue, it should feel genuine and reflect what the company has always been about.

If you’re trying to resonate as authentic, you have to listen to your customers and show that you’re doing so. Brands that acknowledge and even act on customer feedback build that trust. Authenticity is about consistency and follow-through. If a brand talks about sustainability, for example, it should also have practices in place to prove it. Any inconsistency can damage that trust very quickly.