“90% of companies are scared shitless… we’re fucking fearless'“.

That was the line that made me stop and pay attention.

Oatly Creative Director, John Schoolcraft used it to describe the company’s response to being sued by big dairy in the early years of their rebrand.

Today’s episode is about challenger brands, it’s a short guide to their positioning and what makes true challenger brands great. I’m calling it…

This edition of supergoods is brought to you by Mind Control

Considering a brand redesign or packaging refresh?

I’ve sort of built a reputation for doing these style of packaging breakdowns. But here’s the secret - these reviews are just fun, light hearted takes to exercise my curiosity. The real work happens with depth and detail and it’s often the first thing we do with a new client at Mind Control.

Our Pack Audit program includes:

✅ Audit of 2–5 SKUs: visual hierarchy, messaging, and shelf-readability
✅ Eye-tracking analysis: see what shoppers actually notice
✅ Competitor comparison: how your pack stacks up against category leaders
✅ Shopper clarity check: are you saying what you think you’re saying?
✅ 5-6 page report: straight-talking insights and recommendations

Do it before you invest in a large scale redesign.

This article is a quick-guide to the idea of challenger brands. We all love the endless case studies of disruptive brands, but what is it in their positioning that sets them apart? Let’s explore.

Are you keeping your competitors up at night?

Every category has its Goliath. A challenger brand is the David that makes them sweat.

There’s a major different between being a niche player and a real threat. Loads of brands are happy to coexist in a segment of their category alongside the major players, at peace with their lot in life and not trying to upset the apple cart.

People tend to think of “challenger brands” as “number two” in the category.

But it’s less about position, and more about ambition (“fucking fearless”, remember).

Challenger brands don’t settle for niche status. They come to disrupt categories, question the status quo and punch way above their weight. You’re a challenger the moment you stop playing defence and start making the big guys uncomfortable.

What are you challenging?

There’s two core ingredients to disrupt the status quo. Perspective and tension.

Perspective is seeing the cracks that everyone else missed. It's looking at the way something’s always been done - the unspoken rules, the industry defaults, the consumer behaviours - and questioning all of it. Perspective is where challenger brands pull away from the pack and see the blind spots.

And tension comes in when you decide to bring action against it. Tension is where the fight lives. It’s the friction you create when you show up differently, when your product, your brand, your message pushes against expectation. True challengers thrive in that tension.

Tony’s published supply chain data most brands bury. And they built a cult following by turning an uncomfortable truth into a powerful, disruptive story.

But if we’re real, not every brand is setting out on a mission to change the foundations of an entire industry. There’s tension and positioning around less-important matters too.

Are you creating your own rulebook?

The best challenger brands create new reference points instead of competing within the old playbook.

If your positioning is locked inside the existing rules of price points, packaging cues and social content, you are probably reinforcing the status quo, not challenging it.

Reference points are important here. It doesn’t mean you need to create something entirely new. Actually, the best innovations rarely are entirely new - they mix the novel with the familiar.

So how do you create a new reference point in your category without creating something new? You borrow. Look to unrelated yet relevant categories to steal from.

Don’t settle for a neat little box

If you’re thinking about positioning, you might be tempted to fall down the brand archetype rabbit hole.

Don’t.

Archetypes try to simplify complex, evolving and disruptive behaviour into neat categories. But the second you lock a brand into an archetype - "The Maverick," "The Missionary," blah blah blah, you risk killing the unpredictability and edge that make challengers effective.

Challenger brands contradict themselves. They evolve. They don't colour inside the lines. Archetypes sell marketers a sense of control but true disruption isn’t controllable, and it sure as hell isn’t formulaic.

Remember, it’s a decision. One that needs constant reinforcement.

It’s easy to chuck “disruption” into a powerpoint pres - but are you really set up for that?

Challenger branding isn’t a vibe, it’s a decision.

It means tension. It means discomfort. It means building something the market can’t quietly ignore.

There is no playbook you can follow. At the end of the day, it comes down to the people in their organisation and their intrinsic motivation. Have you got it?