Executive Summary

• Underdog brands can overcome the odds to compete with their big market competitors, but it’s important that they formulate a brand strategy built on emotion and their unique value proposition.
• Some core elements of a successful brand underdog strategy include authenticity, emotional branding, and a strong understanding of a target audience.
• Cases of successful underdog brands like Visit Arlington can provide valuable insight into how smaller brands can successfully compete with their larger counterparts.
• Underdog brands must be able to have effective ways to communicate their unique value proposition, use their limited resources strategically, and infuse joy into the brand experience.

Underdog Brand Strategy

We all love a good underdog story—but the underdog story doesn’t come to life without the hard work and dedication that the underdog themselves puts in to make it happen. Every good underdog story involves a lot of strategy and a little bit of grit behind the scenes to overcome the odds.

In brand-building and marketing, the same is true for underdog brands seeking success in competitive markets with other large players. These brands typically share a market with popular brands that capture the majority of attention and the majority of prospective customers. Underdog brands usually have a smaller budget, a smaller market share, and lower brand recognition compared to their larger counterparts. 

Underdog brands must take actionable strategic steps to engage with consumers, often centered around emotional marketing to build lasting relationships. Having a strong strategy is crucial for underdog brands looking to compete in what can be an uphill battle. This article lays out the building blocks for a successful underdog brand strategy that allows brands to stand out and thrive. 

To understand the value of a strong underdog strategy, we gather insights from two experts on the team at Visit Arlington, an underrated and often overlooked travel destination in comparison to its big brothers, Dallas and Fort Worth.

Understanding the Underdog Advantage

Underdogs are sometimes considered to have an advantage over big brands, as they tend to be more relatable and have the potential to evoke empathy and support amongst their target audience. However, this advantage is not inherent—it’s essential to emphasize that it’s up to these underdog brands to build this advantage for themselves.

Larger brands are often seen as more convenient or are simply more recognizable or memorable, leading audiences to choose brands over their smaller counterparts.  

Smaller brands must build emotional connections with their target audience to evoke empathy and relatability and ultimately break through. Our research has shown that 63% of purchase intent is related to the joy consumers experience via a brand’s marketing communications—therefore, brands that are able to use their messaging to highlight the joyful, emotional appeal of their own unique offerings are able to create an underdog advantage from their ability to be relatable and unique.

Creating this advantage is all about building a strategy that unlocks the potential of being a small brand with a unique personality. Visit Arlington Vice President of Marketing & Technology, Michael Ly and Director of Communications Casey Mallory understand this in their work highlighting Arlington’s points of difference, like its sport and entertainment offerings.

This is an example of how underdogs often have the ability to be more creative and have a niche, laser focus that differentiates them from competitors and more directly resonates with consumers with shared values. Using this foundation, brands can put in the work to establish long-term relationships despite their underdog status.

Core Elements of a Successful Underdog Brand Strategy

Every underdog brand strategy will look different based on the brand’s identity, its audience, and its unique market position. However, underdog brands all share the same challenge—having to determine how to break through a competitive market. With this shared challenge, every successful strategy is likely to include a few common elements. 

Some of the key elements of a successful campaign include: 

• Authenticity – Embrace authenticity by leaning into your brand’s unique value proposition and building stories about your brand's challenges and mission statement. 
• Focus on a targeted audience – Niche markets are key to underdog success, so it’s important to engage your target audience with effective messaging centered around audience research and data-driven insights.
• Emotional branding – Create a compelling narrative that resonates on an emotional level with your consumers and then highlight that narrative through strong brand storytelling techniques.
• Use of digital tools – Having a versatile tool belt that includes social media SEO strategies to build a digital footprint and online community will help maximize reach with limited resources.

These elements and how they’re implemented may look different for each brand, but together, they serve as a strong foundation for any brand striving to break through in a tough market. A key priority for underdog brands is often building brand awareness to position themselves as stand-out options in comparison to competitors. 

However, it’s also important to be able to take this brand awareness and transform it into meaningful sales. Brands should create an outreach strategy that combines both brand awareness and lead generation so that they are not only building familiarity amongst their audience members but also driving them to take action.

Actionable Tips for Building Your Underdog Brand

Facing an initial disadvantage, underdog brands must take a more calculated approach to stand out in their markets. Consider the following tips for persevering and building your underdog brand. Michael and Casey from Visit Arlington provide valuable insight into how you can put the following tips into practice.

Develop A Clear Brand Voice And Identity

You need to be recognizable to stand out as an underdog brand. A clear brand voice is essential for breaking into a market with more powerful players. In Arlington’s case, Michael Ly explains how he’s seen the brand change from just baseball and Six Flags across the state, “We’ve had a master plan around becoming an entertainment and sports capital. That’s something we can own as a brand. And then you can pivot that point of difference to another business stream.”

Brands like Arlington have to be able to take their point of difference and turn it into a communicable, distinct identity. To maximize the success of your voice and identity, it’s crucial that they’re founded in your brand’s core mission, values, and unique value offerings so that they resonate with your target audience and align with who your brand really is. 

It’s important to take the following steps to ensure your brand voice and identity are clear: 

• Clearly define and outline your core mission, vision, and values to guide branding decisions.
• Center on your unique value proposition and point of difference in all your messaging.
• Conduct competitor research to ensure your identity stands out in your target market. 
• Use consistent visual elements, like logos, colors, and typography, to establish and maintain recognition.

Regardless of whether your brand is already established, these tips are helpful for any marketing campaign. Whenever you adopt new messaging, it’s crucial that you maintain consistency across all channels by using the same phrasing, communication styles, repeated slogans, value props, and overall energy. 

Casey discusses how Arlington took this into account: “We have to have a hook to be interesting, and entertainment is a very easy hook. Whether it’s a Cowboys game or a Rangers game—if an artist is doing a stadium tour, they’re probably stopping in Arlington.” Arlington’s example shows how important it is to lean into your identity and provide authentic reasons for your target audience to choose you.  “Using the hook to draw in media gives us a chance to showcase all the surprising things people don’t know about Arlington,” says Casey.

Establish Effective Ways To Communicate Your Unique Value Proposition

Underdogs must be able to effectively communicate their unique value proposition to build an audience willing to stand by their brand. Leaning into this value is crucial for setting themselves apart from their more popular competitors. Leaning in means having a clear, concise, and audience-focused message—it should then be consistently centered throughout all your messaging.

There are a variety of ways that you can communicate your value: 

• Use storytelling practices to connect your value proposition to real-world benefits or challenges your customers face.
• Highlight testimonials, case studies, or social proof to build trust and credibility.
• Tailor your message to different platforms, including social media, earned media, and paid media, using the proper format for each.
• Partnering with influencers, media outlets, or other brands to spread your message.
• Using your unique selling points as a bridge to demonstrate other aspects of your travel brand.

Michael and Casey offer guidance from their experience. Casey says, “Often we’re trying to channel the people attending these big events to the mom-and-pop businesses in the destination. We are the ‘yes and.’ Let us show you some experiences to enhance your stay here. We can be focused, tactically, on being that guide, that expert, for our visitors.” Having a strong hook pulls in media and influencers to discover more about your destination and share it with their network.

To cast out that hook to prospects effectively, Michael says, “In our position, we have to be hyperaware of everything that’s going on so we’re able to jump on opportunities as they come. Because we’re such a small team, something like a PR familiarization (FAM) trip is a great way to get a lot of media in the destination at once, instead of trying to have contacts come in one-by-one. Things like this make our lives a little easier.”

Create Memorable Campaigns With Limited Resources

Most underdogs are typically outmatched in budget and media spend—it’s largely what makes them underdogs, after all—so they have to be able to make the most of what they have. Some best practices for creating memorable campaigns with limited resources include: 

• Leverage user-generated content to amplify reach and build community engagement.
• Create campaigns that speak to your target audience’s interests and values, increasing their chances of resonating.
• Partner with local businesses or brands that align with your values to share resources and reach an audience with shared values. 
• Put effort into influencer marketing to reach new audiences.
• Prioritizing quality over quantity by investing in one standout idea or campaign rather than spreading resources too thin.

Limited resources can have their silver linings as well, according to the Visit Arlington team. Casey points out that “Because we’re a smaller team, we get to see a big project all the way through from start to finish, so the execution never gets away from the core and the ‘why.’” 

Additionally, Michael says that it’s easier to work with a small team in many ways: “We have so many stakeholders that every member of the team needs to understand the complexities. It’s easier to keep a smaller team on the same page. The quickness and ability to be nimble really helps.” Plus, “The team knows all of the nuances of the situation… meaning the details are easier to control.”

Consistently Monitoring Your Campaigns

When you have limited resources, you want to be sure that you are using all of your resources to their fullest potential. Ongoing monitoring of all campaigns is a valuable strategy for sustaining your reach and ensuring your resources are used effectively. 

There are a few ways to ensure you have consistent monitoring of your campaigns in place. This often revolves around choosing the specific metrics and setting benchmarks to monitor them. Utilizing digital campaigns and platforms like Google Analytics can help you keep track of the tangible outcomes. 

Michael highlights the value of ongoing monitoring and its benefits for Visit Arlington. “With the help of PETERMAYER, going digital helps us prove ROI. If I’m buying an ad and it doesn’t result in a booking, then I’ve lost my purpose. It allows us to stay accountable and nimble.” 

Keeping a close eye on campaign progress is crucial for maximizing your ROI. If your campaign metrics aren’t driving the traffic that you expected, it's time to make adjustments so that you’re maximizing your resources. It’s this attention to detail and accountability that empower an underdog brand to take advantage of limited resources and remain focused in its goals.

Infuse Joy Into Your Brand Experience

Joy is an invaluable tool. Utilizing this tool in your brand experience can set your brand apart and establish strong relationships that lead to loyalty. Many Americans say that they rely on joy to get them through difficult times—seventy-four percent, to be exact. By being a vessel for joy for your consumers, you can make your brand stand out in the sea of competition and build a loyal audience. 

There are many ways brands can infuse joy into daily interactions:

• Create moments of delight for your audience using strategic messaging, design, and outreach efforts centered around joy.
• Develop enjoyable brand activations to facilitate experiential marketing and joyful customer interactions.
• Leverage elements like humor or surprise in your marketing campaigns to build emotional connections that keep your brand top of mind.
• Use an understanding of your target audience to speak to experiences your audience has likely had and build connections around empathy.
• Offer something extra to your consumers, like a discount or free sample, to provide them with an unexpected spark of joy.

Overcoming Challenges That Are Unique to Underdogs

Underdogs face a few common challenges compared to their larger competitors. Visit Arlington acknowledges that they’re always facing an uphill battle against neighbors like Dallas and Fort Worth. However, part of what shapes an underdog brand is its ability to overcome them and build strong connections with its audience regardless.

The most common challenges for underdogs include:

• Handling limited budgets and resources
• Addressing brand recognition obstacles
• Competing with bigger players to attract an audience
• Maintaining authenticity while scaling

To overcome these challenges, brands must be able to lean into emotional messaging and maximize the impact of every outreach effort. Michael and Casey note multiple ways that an underdog can punch above their weight and compete. 

Michael highlights accountability and teamwork, saying, “All hands on deck. We’re always transparent and in the know… Everyone pitches in.” Meanwhile, Casey touts, “We’re always looking at what’s happening. How can we piggyback on big announcements? How can we jump on trends with our own spin from Arlington?”

Brands that stay agile, maximize their resources, and remain true to their values throughout their lifetime will be able to foster authentic connection and growth.

Examples of Successful Underdog Brands

The following brands demonstrate shining examples of success in overcoming their underdog status and building a loyal following of customers. 

Arlington, TX Tourism

Michael and Casey’s experience comes with clear success to back it up. Arlington offers a lot more than meets the eye, but it’s the lack of attention that created an uphill battle in its pursuit of being recognized as a viable tourist destination. Despite many fun attractions and their ability to attract the occasional day tripper, it was frequently outshined by larger competitor markets with more established reputations for overnight trips, such as Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. 

With the help of PETERMAYER, the “World of Wonderful” campaign was created to show the joy of wonder to be found. Featuring an animated commercial that placed the mundaneness of the city of Blandville against Arlington’s wonder, the campaign highlighted the many attractions families could experience—like attending a Dallas Cowboys game at AT&T Stadium, catching a Texas Rangers game at Globe Life Field, finding thrill at Six Flags, or enjoying local restaurants and breweries.

As a result of the campaign, the city saw a boost in interest thanks to reshaped perceptions of the city as a vibrant travel destination. The campaign fostered an 11% increase in overnight visitation, a 26% increase in organic site traffic, a 25% increase in social media followers, and a 32% increase in room revenue. The qualitative data matters too—Michael says that, “When the commercial first came out, I remember the responses of people who were proud of where they were from. That put us on the map as a city to be reckoned with. And we continue to build off that narrative.”

New Orleans Pelicans

The New Orleans Pelicans NBA franchise had the underdog label thrown upon them by many people who challenged the credibility of the franchise. Lebron James even publicly said, “These guys aren’t good enough for the NBA.” These perceptions kept morale low, and New Orleans residents would rather tune in to a different team or attend a Saints game over a Pelicans game.

However, the Pelicans found a powerful response to their underdog designation. Through the “Won’t Bow Down” campaign, they stood up and boasted their New Orleans DNA to create a campaign that rallied support for the team, reenergized the fanbase, and got the city behind the team. The campaign was founded on an authentic connection with New Orleans’ local culture and resilience—it spoke to the perception of the team as an underdog while emphasizing its strength and resilience as a force that shouldn’t be written off.

Ultimately, the campaign fostered the New Orleans spirit to bring greater ticket sales and improved brand perception. By elevating the team’s presence as a symbol of the city, it drove 78 million impressions in two weeks and sales of 12,000 season tickets. 

Dollar Shave Club

Dollar Shave Club was born into a market that was dominated by giants like Gillette and Schick. This made the company an inherent underdog that had to be strong to break through. The brand leaned into its unique character and the personality of its founder to resonate with its target consumers and used its unique subscription-based model to funnel customers in. 

Through the “Our Blades Are F***ing Great” campaign, the company created a video that infused humor and entertainment with an effective pitch of their service by its CEO. The campaign almost immediately became a viral sensation, establishing their brand voice as edgy, relatable, and fun while generating instant brand recognition.

The campaign’s humor first established the brand as recognizable, and then the unique value proposition of delivering quality razors to members’ front doors brought customers to stick around. It also generated a shift from being a small startup to a key player in the market. In 2016, Dollar Shave Club was acquired by Unilever for $1 billion and became a permanent fixture in shaving industry history. 

Key Takeaways from Successful Underdog Brands

Although no two underdog brands are the same, there are a few foundational points brands can take into consideration when developing a unique game plan. Visit Arlington and other successful underdogs spotlight a few key takeaways: 

• Unique value proposition – Underdogs have unique value and character that can set them apart from their larger competitors, and the most successful are strategic about highlighting this unique value. 
• Resilience – Brands must be willing to remain resilient in the face of competition and be creative in their response to overcome the inherent roadblocks they face. 
• Innovation – Set the bar higher and take innovative approaches to communicate with your audience, including humor, bold messaging, and creative content. 
• Adaptability – With less brand recognition, underdog brands have a more difficult ability to “set the agenda,” so they must be able to adapt and respond to public conversation.

Small brands can replicate these successes through a variety of strategies—-this work centers around having detailed internal conversations and brainstorming ideas that make sense for each unique brand. Creative sessions will be essential for discussing your audience’s interests, pinpointing your unique value offerings, and developing an idea that will rope in new consumers.

Outshine the Competition with Effective Underdog Brand Building

Underdog brands may have to do a bit more work to compete in their markets, but taking the proper steps can make all the difference in shining through. Underdog brands like Visit Arlington that are able to effectively communicate their unique value proposition are more capable of overcoming their competition to build a loyal following. 

At PETERMAYER, we have proven experience in helping underdog brands build campaigns that empower them to expand their reach and build relationships with new consumers. We’ll work with you to develop creative messaging campaigns that unlock the joy within your brand and effectively communicate it to your consumers. Using a combination of data and the insights we cook up in our Brand Joy Lab, we’ll help you build a marketing strategy that drives real results. 

Let’s chat. Schedule a call to discuss your strategy as an underdog brand and stand out in your market.