The enlightened brand deliberately swimming against the prevailing cultural or category tide.
What is it challenging?

A prevailing and commonly/ unthinkingly accepted aspect of contemporary culture.

Why does its consumer respond to it?

Through being provoked and stimulated by the surprising stance the challenger takes.

Charles van Es, US Brand Director Newcastle Brown Ale

The Enlightened Zagger is deliberately swimming against a prevailing cultural current. They are not simply zagging while the world zigs just for the hell of it; one of the key differences between this and the previous one is the ‘truth’ that the Enlightened Zagger reveals to us as to why they are taking the stand they are.

Very often this truth is something along the lines of ‘the world has gone mad in this particular regard, and I am calling the world out on it’. It is not behaving as a missionary, in the sense that it does not have any sense of higher moral purpose or stature. It is simply saying that ‘I know a lot of the world seems to think this is OK, but in reality it’s BS, and I am calling it out for what it is.’

We live immersed in a media culture where we are constantly being told how we ought and ought not to live our lives, what we ought to do more of and what we ought to do less of, what is in and what is out. We have television celebrities and lifestyle gurus, the tyrannies of cool on the one hand and productivity on the other, the social imperative of being always this and never that – and an astonishing amount of the world around the Enlightened Zagger seems to fall for it all. But not them.

Unlike the Irreverent Maverick, this stance is not about sticking two fingers up to the establishment, nor trying to move the world on. It is more often in fact about resisting change and defending values now seemingly lost, a deliberate rejection of current trends, behaviours and beliefs. In the interview above, we look at a challenger just starting out on this narrative: Newcastle Brown Ale.

Think your brand is an Enlightened Zagger? Take the test on your iphone or android.

3 Responses to “Challenger Type: The Enlightened Zagger”

1. A New Model for Challenger Brands — eatbigfish says: June 20, 2012 at 9:54 am

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2. Challenger Type: Take the Test — eatbigfish says: June 20, 2012 at 10:08 am

   [...] Maverick The Game Changer The People’s Champion The Democratiser The Next Generation The Enlightened Zagger The Visionary The Feisty [...]

3. Angry at instagram | Georgia Craib says: December 20, 2012 at 8:52 pm

   [...] Enlightened Zagger if you [...]