There is a question I find myself returning to every time a client tells me they want to “own their market” or “become the go-to brand” in their category. It sounds like the right ambition. It feels like the right goal. But I think it is, more often than not, the wrong starting point.

Positioning is not about claiming the top spot. It is about claiming the right spot: the one that is true, defensible, and that your audience will actually believe.

Avis Car Rental figured this out in 1963. Then, fifty years later, they forgot it. Both halves of that story are worth studying.

The Problem with Being Number Two

By the early 1960s, Avis was stuck. The car rental company had been trailing behind Hertz for years, a gap that seemed structural and almost permanent. Hertz had more cars, more locations, more money, and the kind of market dominance that tends to be self-reinforcing. Avis was losing $3.2 million a year, and every attempt to compete on Hertz’s terms had failed.^[1]

Then they hired the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach, and everything changed. DDB did not arrive with a slicker campaign or a bigger media buy. They asked Avis to do something the advertising world of Madison Avenue considered almost suicidal: tell the truth about their position in the market.^[2]

The idea was simple and, at the time, revolutionary. Instead of projecting the unflappable confidence that every other brand on the street was projecting, Avis would simply acknowledge reality.

“We’re No. 2. We try harder.”

Five words. A confession, a promise, and a competitive argument folded into a single sentence.

The Genius of the Weak Position

It is worth pausing here to understand why this worked, because on the surface it seems almost perverse. Why would any brand voluntarily remind people that it is not the market leader? Why hand your competitor the crown in your own advertising?

The campaign worked because it reframed the entire competitive conversation. Being number two, in the hands of DDB copywriter Paula Green (a real-life Peggy Olson, as one writer later described her), was no longer a liability. It became a reason: a reason to care more, to be more attentive, to give a customer with a reservation the kind of attention that a dominant, self-satisfied market leader might simply not bother to provide.^[3]

David Ogilvy called it “diabolical positioning.” The campaign worked like judo, using the opponent’s strength against them. Hertz was large, dominant, entrenched, and that suddenly read as a problem for Hertz. Bigness implied complacency. Being number one implied comfort. Avis, by contrast, was hungry. And hunger, for a customer handing over their credit card at an airport counter, turns out to be a rather attractive quality in a service company.^[4]

What the Numbers Said

Within a year of launch, Avis went from losing $3.2 million to turning a profit of $1.2 million, the first time the company had been in the black in over a decade. Between 1963 and 1966, as Hertz publicly ignored the campaign (which only reinforced the “too big to care” narrative), the market share gap between the two brands shrank dramatically: Hertz fell from 61% to 49%, while Avis climbed from 29% to 36%.^[5]

Hertz executives eventually became genuinely alarmed. Their internal projections suggested that if the trend continued, Avis might need an entirely new advertising campaign, because it would no longer be number two.^[6]

None of that came from a bigger budget, a better product launch, or a flashier execution. It came from a single positioning decision and the courage to own exactly where they stood in the market.

Positioning Is a Promise, Not a Slogan

There is a version of this case study that turns it into a lesson about clever copywriting. That reading misses the point entirely.

What made the Avis campaign work was the operational commitment behind the words. The slogan came with tangible service improvements across the customer experience: shorter queues, cleaner cars, warmer service. The then-CEO Bob Townsend went so far as to publish a phone number in the ads that connected directly to his desk. He answered every call himself.^[7]

That is what positioning actually means. A position is a promise you make to the market about what kind of company you are, and every decision you make either honours that promise or quietly erodes it.

The slogan worked because the substance was real. The advertising was simply the articulation of something the company was already doing. Strip away that operational commitment, and “We try harder” becomes five empty words on a billboard. With it, the phrase carried enough weight to anchor one of the most durable brand positions of the 20th century.

The Part Nobody Talks About: When Avis Stopped Trying

After fifty years of “We try harder,” Avis quietly retired the slogan and replaced it with a new one: “It’s your space.”^[8]

The marketing world noticed immediately. Former Avis executives responded with open frustration. One, who had spent over a decade in senior marketing roles at the company, called the decision foolish and idiotic, and her reasoning was precise: what Avis was walking away from was not just a tagline. It was fifty years of emotional equity, a brand promise that customers had internalised, trusted, and built a relationship with.

“It’s your space” carries none of that weight. It tells you nothing about what Avis believes, what it promises, or why you should choose it over the dozens of competitors now crowding the market. It does not differentiate. It does not create a memorable mental shortcut. It does not answer the question every potential customer is silently asking: why you, and not someone else?

The irony is sharp. The brand that had built its entire identity on the willingness to acknowledge weakness and turn it into strength had, in its moment of maturity, defaulted to exactly the kind of vague, generic, confidence-without-content messaging it had originally disrupted.

What This Means for Your Brand

Brand positioning is not a one-time project. It is an ongoing strategic commitment, and the hardest part is rarely finding your position. The hardest part is holding it when the temptation to sound bigger, safer, or more universal comes knocking.

The brands that lose their way almost always drift in the same direction: they start chasing the language of market leaders. They begin to sound like everyone else. They mistake polish for power and size for strength.

Avis at its best understood something most brands spend their entire existence trying to learn: you do not need to be first to be unforgettable. You need to be specific. You need to be true. And you need to back your position with every decision you make, from the product you build to the phone call the CEO answers himself.

The most powerful brand positions are built on honest, clearly articulated reasons to believe. Whoever you are, wherever you stand in the market, that is your raw material. The question is whether you have the courage to use it.

Avis had a gift: they were number two. They turned that gift into a legend, then quietly handed it back.

That is a mistake worth not repeating.

References

[1] Slate. “Was ‘We Try Harder’ the Most Brilliant Ad Slogan of the 20th Century?” Slate, August 12, 2013. slate.com

[2] Campaign Live. “History of advertising No 177: Robert Townsend’s all-staff memo.” Campaign Live, March 2017. campaignlive.com

[3] Craftsmen of Creativity. “We Try Harder.” Craftsmen of Creativity. craftsmenofcreativity.com

[4] Tonic Consultancy. “Avis ‘We Try Harder’: Branding For Underdogs.” Tonic Consultancy, November 2023. tonicconsultancy.co.uk

[5] Denver Post / AP. “‘We try harder’: The story of most brilliant ad slogan of the 20th century.” Denver Post, August 2013. denverpost.com

[6] Mumbrella Asia. “My favourite ad campaign of all time: The Avis ‘We Try Harder’ print series of 1962.” Mumbrella Asia, May 2018. mumbrella.asia

[7] Media Shower. “How Avis Turned Second Place Into First Choice.” Media Shower. mediashower.com

[8] Branding Strategy Insider. “Brand Strategy: AVIS Abandons Trying Harder.” Branding Strategy Insider. brandingstrategyinsider.com