Classic Challenger Strategy?

While away for an extended Thanksgiving break, Jack Flack received several inquiries about the "classic challenger strategy" mentioned in the Fox Business News: A 6-Point Challenger Strategy posting that accompanied the CNBC Rescue Memo for Jeff Immelt.

While Roger Ailes pursues challenger strategy instinctively, Jack Flack recommends two good starting points for those who want to make the why's and what's of challenging more explicit.

Adam Morgan, Mark Barden and their colleagues at Eat Big Fish provide the current best thinking in challenger marketing, and Morgan's first book should be read by anybody who needs to turn around or create a brand in the shadow of powerful player.

A veteran of advertising, marketing and politics, Sawyer-Miller founder Scott Miller has been helping corporate CMOs and third-party/third-world politicos benefit from his "insurgent mindset" approach for years. His Underdog Advantage, co-authored with marketing wallah David Morey, instructs on how to turn weaknesses into strengths.

Also, former Pepsi boss Roger Enrico's The Other Guy Blinked belongs on every challenger's bookshelf, even though today the 1986 title reads a little like a good vintage comic book, missing only an occasional "Pow!" or "Wham!" The release of the book was itself part of Pepsi's challenger efforts during the hottest days of the old cola wars, and thus the rhetoric often feels a bit over-carbonated. But the account still provides an excellent example of how to translate challenger strategy into tactics.

For less literal, but equally relevant, thinking, try the Marine Corps' instant-classic Warfighting. Its principles of "friction," "fluidity" and "speed and focus" readily translate to dealing with disadvantages in consumer markets.