When people talk about challenger brands, the same names tend to come up. Monzo. Oatly. Airbnb. Gymshark. Surreal. Rock Face. Booking.com. Peloton. Uber.
Brands that entered established categories and disrupted them. Not always by inventing something entirely new, but by questioning how things had always been done and choosing to do them differently.
Because of that, the term “challenger brand” often gets associated with size or stage. A small, startup taking on big incumbents. But that framing misses the real point.
Being a challenger isn’t about how big you are or how long you’ve been around. It’s about how you think and behave as a brand.
At its simplest, a challenger brand questions the norms of its category and does things differently. Not necessarily louder or bigger. Just braver.
And the reality is that you don’t need to be a challenger brand to have challenger energy. In fact, some of the most successful established brands today are the ones that have kept that mindset long after they stopped being small.
The trap established brands can fall into
As brands grow and become market leaders, their instinct can slowly start to change.
Often without anyone consciously deciding that it should.
Instead of challenging the category, they start protecting their position within it: protecting market share. Protecting legacy thinking and processes that have worked well in the past.
Over time, this can gradually shift a brand from being progressive to being defensive.
The irony is that the very things that helped them become successful in the first place can also make them slower and more cautious as they scale. More layers of approval. More complexity. More pressure not to get things wrong.
But categories don’t stand still. Consumer expectations change. Culture evolves. New competitors enter the market with fresh ideas and fewer constraints.
If established brands don’t evolve with those shifts, they can start to look dated surprisingly quickly.
Which is why challenger energy matters, even when you’re already the market leader.
In many ways, challenger thinking shouldn’t disappear when a brand becomes successful. That’s exactly when it matters most.
Sometimes you see this in the categories you least expect
Some of the clearest examples of challenger influence have appeared in sectors where you might least expect it.
Banking is a good example.
Over the past decade, challenger banks like Monzo, Starling and Revolut have helped shift the tone of the entire category. They moved banking away from corporate, product-led communication towards something more human and relatable. Less about accounts, rates and financial jargon. More about everyday life and helping people manage their money in a way that fits how they actually live.
They didn’t just launch new products. They changed the conversation.
What’s interesting now is how established banks are responding.
Lloyds’ recent brand evolution is a good example. The bank isn’t suddenly trying to position itself as a disruptive fintech or pretending to be a challenger brand. Instead, it’s evolving how it communicates and shows up in ways that reflect what clearly resonates with audiences today. Less corporate and product-first, more human and customer-focused. Less about transactions, more about the life ambitions that money supports.
It’s a smart response to how the category has changed. And importantly, it’s done in a way that still feels authentic to Lloyds as a brand. In other words, it’s not imitation. It’s adaptation.
What established brands can learn from challengers
None of this means established brands should try to behave exactly like challenger brands. But there are a few lessons that are worth paying attention to.
1. Know what you stand for. Commit to it.
Many large brands often try to say everything to everyone, which can lead to diluted or overly complicated messaging. Challengers tend to do the opposite. They define a clear point of view and commit to it. Clarity and conviction cut through better than complexity.
2. Move faster. Remove unnecessary friction.
Big organisations can slow themselves down with layers of approval and risk aversion. Challenger brands show the advantage of speed – testing ideas, learning quickly and adapting when something works. Acting faster than the rest of the category can be a competitive advantage in itself.
3. Sound human. Not institutional.
One of the biggest shifts challengers have brought is tone. Less corporate language. Less jargon. More relatable, conversational communication that reflects how people actually speak and think. Brands that sound human tend to connect more easily.
4. Fix what the category has learned to tolerate.
Great challengers often identify frustrations the rest of the category has simply learned to accept. Airbnb simplified travel booking. Monzo brought transparency to banking. Often the biggest opportunity comes from solving everyday friction.
5. Question the ‘rules’ of your category. Regularly.
The moment a brand stops questioning how things are done, it risks becoming stuck. The brands that continue to evolve are the ones that regularly challenge category norms and ask whether those rules still make sense.
Challenger energy doesn’t mean trying to be cool
It’s worth clarifying one thing: thinking like a challenger doesn’t mean ripping everything up and starting again.
It doesn’t mean suddenly becoming bold, divisive or controversial for the sake of it.
And it definitely doesn’t mean putting on a sideways baseball cap and trying too hard to look “down with the kids”.
Challenger energy isn’t about being rebellious. It’s about being aware.
Aware of where your category is heading, what your audience actually cares about and having the confidence to evolve when needed.
Sometimes that evolution can be significant. Other times it is surprisingly simple – changing the tone of your messaging, how your brand shows up visually, or rethinking parts of the customer experience that feel outdated.
The point is not to copy challenger brands. It’s to stay curious, proactive and willing to question the norms of your category.
The brands that last never stop challenging
Challenger isn’t a stage of business. It’s a stance.
The brands that win long term never stop questioning their category, evolving with the world around them and finding new ways to stay relevant.
Because the moment a brand becomes comfortable defending its position, it usually starts to lose it.
You don’t need to be a challenger brand to think like one. But the brands that last are the ones that never stop challenging.
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