How to Market a Leading Brand

Originally published May 2011. Updated October 2026.

Managing a leading brand is a privilege, but also a challenge.

Some brands are perceived as “number one” in quality, customer service, warranty, or distribution.

But the true, undeniable category leader is the best-selling brand. That is what a market leader is: the brand with the largest market share in its category.

The leading brand usually has enough resources to continue building on its success and pursue further growth. Equally important, enough resources should be allocated to defend its leadership position. Leadership is never guaranteed, as the examples below show.

What should be part of a leading brand’s defensive strategy? Here are six strategies that should be on the brand manager’s radar:

Communicate the Good News

Brand managers know how hard it is to build a category leader. Once you get there, you have to behave like one. Part of the defense is communicating the fact that you are number one.

All your marketing materials should reflect this privileged status, including your slogan. This strategy provides reassurance to existing consumers that they made the right choice, and builds trust with new ones.

One caution: size alone does not impress everybody. A 2007 Admap article found that many consumers see little benefit in size, so the leader has to connect its size to something the customer values. Tell people what being number one means for them, and make sure they think of you when they are ready to buy (more on that in my article on brand salience).

Move to an Emotionally Engaging Positioning

In case the category leader uses a product-oriented positioning strategy, it’s now time to transition to a new, evolving one that focuses on intangibles, for better and long-lasting customer engagement. The move makes sense: your customers are already very familiar with the product (that’s why the brand is number one), so why not become a more sensitive, caring brand?

Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” is a good illustration. The drink did not change. The bottles and cans did: they carried people’s first names, and the product became something you give to a friend. According to Nielsen data reported by The Wall Street Journal, US Coke sales rose in 2014 after eleven straight years of decline.

Match Your Competitors’ Moves

A category leader is the most exposed brand to competitors’ attacks, including the challenger brand but also new entrants into the category. These brands will employ various strategies to convince your customers to switch camps. In your defense, you have to match your competitors’ moves, even the more aggressive ones.

If one competitor decides to lower the prices, you should follow suit, even if your margins become very thin. You should also respond to an innovative new product being launched, by making sure you have something similar available soon. Your customers will remain loyal as they don’t have any reason to switch.

Microsoft Teams is a case in point. Slack launched in 2014 and won over many workplaces. Microsoft, the long-time leader in office software, answered in 2017 with Teams. By July 2019 Microsoft reported 13 million daily active users for Teams, ahead of the 10 million reported for Slack.

Not sure who will come after your position next? Start with a competitive brand analysis.

Don’t Use Comparative Advertising

A communication trap many leading brands fall into is the use of comparative advertising. That is, using head-to-head comparisons between their products versus competition.

A category leader is in a league of its own. Such a brand should act with class and not get dragged into competitive “dirty wars”. A comparison strategy could make consumers uncertain of the brand’s superiority.

The cola wars are a reminder. In 1975 Pepsi launched the Pepsi Challenge, blind taste tests in which many people picked Pepsi. Coca-Cola’s own studies confirmed that Pepsi won on taste alone, and in 1985 it reformulated its flagship to be sweeter. The backlash was so strong that the original returned as Coca-Cola Classic less than three months after the change was announced.

Invest in Innovation

Typically the category leader commands the highest margins. Ideally your strategy will include re-investing some of these funds in innovation, to meet the (always) higher customer expectations.

You should be the first to introduce innovative products and services and create new categories. Apple built its leadership in portable music devices and tablet computers by constantly reinventing these categories. It even retired its own iPod in 2022, once the iPhone had absorbed its job.

Nokia is the opposite story. It led the global mobile phone market for 14 years. In the first quarter of 2012, Gartner had Samsung ahead, with a 20.7% share against Nokia’s 19.8%, while smartphone sales were growing 44.7% a year. Nokia’s share of the smartphone market was just 9.2%.

Educate the Market

The best selling and most recognizable name should also be the category’s thought leader. The leading brand is responsible for setting the market trends and helping consumers make informed decisions. With a wide array of options available, from blogs, newsletters and YouTube videos to podcasts and live webinars, this strategy should be easy to implement.

John Deere did it back in 1895, when it started The Furrow, a magazine for farmers. Charles Deere saw the promotional value of giving farmers an accurate, unbiased source of information. The magazine is still in circulation today, and its editorial pages rarely mention John Deere.

One more thing: brand confusion always favors the category leader. If you are lucky to have competitors that don’t stand out for anything, you will be able to enjoy the leadership position for a long time.

If you are the number two brand, read Marketing a Challenger Brand for the other side of the story.

Frequently Asked Questions About Marketing a Leading Brand

What is a market leader?

A market leader is the brand with the largest market share in its category, the best-selling brand. A brand can be perceived as number one in quality, customer service, warranty, or distribution without being the best seller.

How does a market leader defend its position?

By communicating its leadership, moving to an emotionally engaging positioning, matching competitors’ moves, avoiding comparative advertising, investing in innovation, and educating the market.

Can a market leader lose its position?

Yes. Nokia led the global mobile phone market for 14 years before Samsung passed it in 2012, and Coca-Cola had to bring back its original formula less than three months after changing it. The leader is the most exposed brand in the category, which is why the defense never stops.

Should a leading brand follow a competitor’s price cut?

The article above argues yes, even if margins become thin, because customers then have no reason to switch. If you run a premium brand, there is another option. In my Going Premium whitepaper I recommend launching a fighter brand to compete in the segments where lower-priced competitors are taking your customers, and I warn that a price war is almost never a good idea.

How is marketing a leading brand different from marketing a challenger brand?

The leader’s goal is to defend its number one position, especially against the closest competitor. The challenger attacks: it studies the leader’s strengths and weaknesses, owns the opposite positioning, and moves faster.