Amazon.co.uk Review
The title of this book comes from an advert from Avis, the car rental firm, published at a time of planned growth. It positioned Avis as a small fish being chased by a bigger one--a bigger car hire firm. They had to stay ahead or be swallowed. Morgan calls Avis and others like them "Challenger Brands" or second-raters, and he examines 40 of them in this book. His aim is to identify their common marketing strands as they find themselves in an increasingly vulnerable position. By using the lessons revealed in the book, second-raters can develop strategies to consolidate and, if they want to (they don't always), compete with the leaders. The book is divided into three sections. The relatively short opening one outlines the challenges facing the second-raters, but the real meat is in the much larger section two where Morgan lays out his Eight Credos of Challenger Brands, their key marketing features. The third and final section, again short, is very practical. It shows how any company can use the Eight Credos as part of a two day practical exercise to start improving their own market position. With wide ranging examples from both the US and Europe, Morgan stresses time and again that you can learn from those outside your own market as well as those within it. He makes his points very well indeed, revealing that second-raters will have to operate very differently from market leaders if they are to survive. --Sandra Vogel
Review
: "Although out last year, Eating the Big Fish, is one of the most stimulating books on brands and has grown to become a must read." (Marketing Business – Year′s Best Books, January 2001)
"...full of such useful ideas that a whole generation of marketing folk bang on about [it]" (Campaign, Friday 23rd November 2007)
"Always find your brands in the slipstream of the market leaders? Well this could be the book for you." (The Drum, October 17th 2008)
"...full of such useful ideas that a whole generation of marketing folk bang on about [it]" (Campaign, Friday 23rd November 2007)
