Challenger brands don’t have a marketing problem. They have a visibility problem

The “guess what” test

A line I heard last year in a conversation about garden centres has stuck with me.

You want customers to finish this sentence: “I went to ___ and guess what…”

That “guess what” isn’t luck. It’s designed. It’s the thing people notice, remember, and repeat.

For product brands, the test becomes:

“I bought ___ and guess what…”

If customers can’t finish that sentence in a way that is specific to you, meaningful, and easy to repeat, you don’t have a visibility problem. You have a message problem.

And if customers can’t repeat it, retailers can’t sell it.

Two audiences, one job: make it easy to range and easy to choose

Most home and garden brands are trying to convince two audiences at once: the retail buyer and the end customer.

A buyer wants confidence: will it earn its space, will it move, will it reduce risk, will staff be able to explain it, will it add something useful to the category?

A shopper wants reassurance: does this solve my problem, is it worth the risk, and can I trust it?

Your job is to make the answer obvious to both. Not with a long story. With one clear idea that holds up under scrutiny.

Why challenger brands stay invisible

This is the pattern I see again and again.

A brand “infrastructure” exists. There’s a vision, a mission, a list of values. It might even be beautifully written. But it’s been put in a drawer and never referred to again.

So, when a decision comes up, the team improvises.

Someone writes a pack claim that doesn’t match what sales are promising. Someone posts something on social that’s in a totally different tone. The website reads like a company history lesson rather than a reason to buy. Customer service tries to be helpful but doesn’t have a clear set of behaviours to follow when things go wrong.

The brand becomes two-dimensional. It has no personality. It doesn’t behave like a consistent entity. It behaves like a collection of disconnected activities.

And if that’s what’s happening inside the business, it’s what customers feel outside it.

The thing that changes everything: a clear platform the business believes in

When challenger brands start selling, it’s not usually because they “did more marketing”.

It’s because they built a clear platform that the whole business could buy into, and they used it as a filter for everything.

Not a 60-page brand guideline. A plain-English foundation that is easy to understand and hard to misinterpret.

Here’s the difference.

A brand platform that works is something you refer to weekly. It sits next to the day-to-day work. You use it to ask:

• Does this activity align with what we’re here to do?
• Does it reinforce what makes us different?
• Would our customer recognise this as “us”?
• Can a buyer understand it quickly and repeat it accurately?

If the answer is no, you don’t add more words. You strip it back.

That’s the job. Clarity, then consistency.

Start with the only question that matters: why would someone choose you?

Challengers don’t lose because their products are bad. They lose because they’re not the obvious choice.

If customers can’t see a meaningful difference between you and the obvious alternative, they’ll default to what’s familiar or shop on price. That’s not personal. It’s how people behave when they’re unsure.

The trap is trying to be everything at once: performance, sustainability, premium design, “for everyone”, “works in every garden”, “great value”, “trusted”, “innovative”.

You can hear the fear in it. A fear of missing out. A fear of narrowing. A fear of being wrong.

But challenger brands rarely win by being “a bit better”. They win by being more specific.

A point of difference is a decision. Every decision comes with a trade-off.

If your difference is durability, you might have a higher price. If it’s refillability, you may need education. If it’s non-toxic, you may need to be disciplined about claims and careful about proof.

The discipline is simple:

In one sentence, why would someone choose you over the obvious alternative?

If you can’t answer it, your buyer won’t range it confidently, and your customer won’t choose it quickly.

Your fundamentals aren’t for the website. They’re for the team.

This is where vision, mission and values come in. Not as marketing language, but as decision tools.

If your brand is established and everyone instinctively understands how it should act, you might not need to refer to them every week.

But most challenger brands aren’t there yet.

They need the foundations because they stop the business improvising. They stop you drifting. They stop you saying one thing on pack and another thing in a buyer meeting.

In plain English:

• Vision is the future you’re trying to help create.
• Mission is what you do every day, and who you do it for.
• Values are how you behave while you do it.

Here’s the rule that matters: if they don’t change decisions, they’re just words.

So don’t put them in a drawer. Put them to work.

Brand personality: making the brand three-dimensional

This is the part that gets dismissed as “fluffy”, but it’s one of the biggest reasons challengers feel forgettable.

Brand personality is simply the human feel of the brand across every touchpoint. It’s not a mood board. It’s behaviour.

It’s the way you speak. The way you look. The things you would never say. The way you respond when something goes wrong. The way you behave when nobody’s watching.

A two-dimensional brand says “quality” and “innovation”. It could be anyone.

A three-dimensional brand sounds confident in its own skin, consistently. You can recognise it on pack, on POS, on the website, in a social reply, and in customer service.

And that consistency builds belief.

Shoppers decide in the moment, which is good news for challengers

One of the most overlooked opportunities for challenger brands is on the retail shelf.

Many brands assume shoppers arrive having their purchases already decided. But research in grocery suggests a surprising amount of the basket is still open to influence, with choices made during the shop.

Home and garden have their own version of this. People browse. They compare. They take photos. They look something up. They ask staff. They pick up and put back.

That raises the stakes and means packaging and POS aren’t decoration. They’re decision tools.

If you want your retail trial to become a listing, you need to win that moment.

A word on proof

Proof matters, but it shouldn’t overshadow the main point.

Proof is not the strategy. It backs up the strategy.

If your point of difference is the reason to choose you, proof is the reason to believe you. The receipt, not the idea.

In practice, that means turning claims into demonstrations. Showing the product working. Making the trade-off feel worth it. Reducing risk.

You don’t need a Hollywood production. A clear demonstration filmed well on a phone can do more than pages of claims.

Three things to try if you want to stop being invisible

You don’t need to do everything. Pick what fits your brand and commit to it.

1) Strip your message down to one core idea
If you need a paragraph to explain the benefit, it isn’t clear yet. Make it simple enough that a customer can repeat it, and a buyer can sell it.

2) Choose a specific group and speak directly to them
If you target the same people in the same way as everyone else, you’ll be compared on the same terms. Find a group the category neglects and take them seriously. That’s how challengers get noticed.

3) Make your difference visible where decisions are made
On pack. On POS. On your product page. In a short demonstration that removes doubt. You’re not trying to entertain. You’re trying to make the decision simple and confident, so a customer thinks: “Yes, this is the one for me.”

The part marketing teams forget: the customer hasn’t seen it enough yet

One final point that’s worth saying plainly.

Marketing teams get bored of campaigns and messages. They’ve lived with the same line for months. They’re desperate to try something new.

The customer may have only seen it once.

That’s why consistency is such an advantage for challenger brands. If you have a clear platform the business believes in, repetition stops feeling like laziness. It becomes discipline.

And discipline is what turns a trial listing into a product that earns its space.

So, back to where we started.

“I bought ___ and guess what…”

If you can get that sentence right, you’re a long way closer to being chosen.