What Makes Challenger Brands Emotionally Distinctive

More Than Disruption - Emotional Connection

Challenger brands are often described in terms of what they fight against: category norms, market leaders, legacy expectations. But that misses the bigger picture.

The most successful challenger brands don't just disrupt, they connect. They enter crowded markets and make you feel something different. They carve out emotional space in consumers' minds long before they dominate shelf space. In today's food landscape, that emotional distinctiveness is no longer a nice-to-have, it's essential.

At System1, we've been studying what makes ideas land emotionally, and more importantly, how to measure that impact before a product ever hits the market. Because bold ideas are only as powerful as the feelings they evoke.

Our Test Your Innovation tool helps brands identify ideas that resonate emotionally and predict their commercial potential. By measuring how people feel and - not just what they say, the tool gives a clear, data-backed view of what makes an innovation truly distinctive.

Challenger Brands That Lead with Emotion

Some of the most exciting brands in food right now are those using emotion not as a garnish, but as a core ingredient. Their distinctiveness doesn't just come from functional innovation, but from how they make people feel:

• Better Naturecreates emotionally warm narratives around plant-based eating, turning tempeh into something familiar, comforting, and full of personality.

• Hoxton Farmstaps into sensory nostalgia - recreating the taste and mouthfeel of animal fat, without the environmental and ethical baggage.

• Multus Biotechand Eden Biotake on complex scientific challenges but wrap them in human-centered storytelling that speaks to progress, sustainability, and optimism.

What unites these brands isn't just what they do, it's how they emotionally position what they do. Their branding is deliberate, their tone is memorable, and their ideas carry emotional weight.

This is what sets challenger brands apart. They don't rely on legacy. They build feeling from the ground up.

The Real Advantage: Measurable Distinctiveness

Many innovators assume emotion is intangible and something you "just know" when you feel it. But that's exactly the myth Test Your Innovationdispels. Using behavioural science, we help brands get clarity on:

• How their ideas make people feel
• Which emotional responses drive action
• Whether those responses are strong enough to deliver growth

This allows challenger brands to move fast without guessing- and to stay emotionally true while making commercially smart decisions.

It also gives them something many emerging brands struggle to achieve: confidence. The kind that comes from knowing your concept resonates not only in a pitch room, but in the real world.

Building Emotionally Distinctive Brands: Where to Focus

For challengers looking to build stronger emotional traction, there are three areas worth focusing on:

1. Know your emotional territory
   Whether it's joy, empowerment, rebellion, or nostalgia, define the dominant emotion you want your brand to evoke and stay consistent.
2. Make sensory storytelling your asset
   In food especially, emotional connection often starts with sensory triggers. Taste, texture, colour, aroma all of these can be woven into a narrative that resonates beyond the product.
3. Test early, test emotionally
   Don't wait until you're launching to find out how people feel. Use tools like Test Your Innovationto shape your idea around the response you want, not the features you hope will sell.

The Role of Community in Building Emotional Strength

What's also distinct about these challengers is that they're not building in isolation. They're plugged into ecosystems like The Meals Collective, a space designed to foster meaningful connection between brands, investors, agencies, researchers, and retailers.

That's key. Because emotional resonance isn't just born in creative studios or lab kitchens. It's forged through dialogue, feedback, testing, and iteration. It's sharpened when insights from research tools are paired with lived experiences from founders, customers, and food thinkers alike.

That's what this event - and this moment - represents: a chance to bring emotion into the innovation process early and build better brands because of it.

Final Thought: Distinctive Brands Feel Different

In a space as dynamic and competitive as food, challenger brands don't win by shouting louder. They win by resonating deeper.

They create products people want to be seen with, talk about, and return to, not just because of what's inside, but because of how they feel using them.

Emotion isn't just part of their marketing. It's baked into their innovation, their storytelling, and their strategy.

And when that emotional distinctiveness is real, and measurable, it becomes the most powerful differentiator of all.