Is Your Brand Fighting the Wrong War?

The 2024"Meaningful Brands" study by Havas Group revealed a shocking finding.

Nobody would care if 75% of brands disappeared.

Let that sink in.

Three out of four businesses waste a lot of money on branding. They spend to stay relevant. But they fall short.

They spend a lot of money to be just another choice in the market. To be replaceable.

And to try to win the war against the competition, leaders often hold competitive analysis meetings. They believe that to survive, they must be better than their rivals.

This is a trap.

The world’s most resonant brands don’t win by fighting competitors. They win by fighting villains.

They understand that to build a brand that customers value, you must protect your customers from a world without you. Your brand must stand between them and an inferior state of being.

That inferior state is your true enemy.

To find out which enemy your brand should face, we can use a classic storytelling framework.

Author Steven Pressfield outlined three types of villains that a hero can face. For a business, each option stands for a unique strategic choice.

The External Villain: A Battle Against the Giants

The most direct villain is a tangible antagonist, like a competitor or market leader. This is a battle of "Us vs. Them." It's perfect for an underdog.

Case Study: Avis vs. Hertz

In the 1960s, Avis was always in second place in car rentals. Hertz kept beating them.

So they changed the fight with the "We Try Harder" campaign.

They used headlines like "Avis is only No. 2 in rent a cars. So why go with us?" and "No. 2ism. The Avis Manifesto."

The campaign cast Hertz as the complacent giant. And Avis as the scrappy challenger that worked harder.

It was a declaration of war against a specific external foe.

And it paid off. Within a year, Avis went from losing $3.2 million to earning $1.2 million.

The Societal Villain: A Battle Against the Status Quo

A bigger villain isn't just a company. It's a broken system, a flawed cultural norm, or the bad habits of an entire industry.

This is a battle for disruption. A battle against the status quo.

Case Study: Salesforce vs. Software

In the late 1990s, businesses were chained to a massive villain: enterprise software.

It was expensive, complex, and a burden to maintain. This was the accepted way of the world.

When Salesforce launched, it didn't try to create a better CRM than its rival, Siebel. It created a different way of doing things. A way that made the norm the enemy.

Salesforce declared, "The End of Software."

Their villain wasn’t a single company. It was the whole flawed system of on-premise software. The enemy was complexity.

Salesforce didn’t just sell a product. They took on a flawed system and ignited a revolution. This movement forced the entire industry to adapt.

And it propelled them to become the market leader, with a 20.7% market share.

The Inner Villain: A Battle Against Your Mind

The most personal villain is the one that lives inside your customers.

It's their fear. Their self-doubt. Their complacency.

This is a battle for personal transformation. A battle against the self.

Case Study: David Goggins vs. the Inner Voice

Every person has a moment when they face a choice: take the easy path or the hard one.

The villain in this moment is universal. It’s the internal voice of weakness and comfort that begs you to stop.

No one battles this villain more explicitly than David Goggins. His enemy is the internal voice of weakness and comfort that lives in everyone. He gives it a name: the "inner bitch."

His book, Can't Hurt Me, is a manual for this war. He provides the tools like:

• The "Accountability Mirror": taping your goals to a mirror and confronting your excuses every day.

• The "Cookie Jar": a mental list of past victories to draw on when you want to quit.

He doesn't just inspire people. He gives them a system to defeat their own internal demons.

Goggins has built a brand worth millions by using this philosophy.

Building Your Tribe by Defining Your Enemy

This leads us to a tough truth: if you pick a villain, you must pick a side.

To be a hero for someone, you will become the villain in someone else’s story.

You cannot be for everyone. A strong brand is built on the customers it is willing to turn away. That clarity is what creates a tribe.

How to Find Your Villain

What war is your brand fighting? Which villain gives you the best chance to shine?

Consider:

• What External Villain could you figh? Is there a lazy market leader you can position against? A direct competitor whose philosophy is the polar opposite of yours?

• What Societal Villain could you fight? What broken system, frustrating process, or flawed belief does your company aim to overturn?

• What Inner Villain could you fight? What fear, anxiety, or self-doubt do you help your customers conquer? What personal demon do you give them the tools to defeat?

When you stop fighting your competitors and start fighting a real villain, it makes it easier to stand out.

Instead of linking your brand to an improved feature. You link it to something different. Something people can care about.

You trade the anxiety of keeping up for the assurance that you are creating value no one can match.

You're no longer just another choice in the market. You become the preferred choice for the people who need to win the war you are fighting.

Onward,

Aaron Shields

P.S. Stuck in a feature war and feeling like your brand is lost in the noise? It’s a sign you’re fighting the wrong enemy. Reply to this email, and let's set up a free 15-minute call. We'll explore how to identify your true villain and craft a meaningful story.