It was refreshingly honest.
Avis wasn’t pretending to be Hertz’s equal.
They were saying, “We’re not the best, but we’ll work harder to earn your trust and loyalty.”
The campaign leaned into their second-best positioning with bold, no-frills ads.
No slick artwork, just a clear promise that they’d go the extra mile because they had no choice but to do so.
People were drawn to the Avis hustle and belief in their hustle paid off.
The following year, Avis saw a 28% increase in car rentals and achieved its first profit in over a decade, narrowing the market share gap with Hertz.
By 1965, Avis had reduced the difference from 32 percentage points to just 13.
Avis taught us this:
The path to success isn’t to blindly mimic the leader.
It’s to find the open gap that nobody else owns, then relentlessy double down on it.
For Avis, that gap was trying harder than the behemoth Hertz.
They made a virtue out of their underdog status by promising to outsweat and outcare the incumbent.
It was an authentic brand narrative that Hertz would never replicate - because Hertz was already the giant. Avis’s hustle was their differentiator.
The takeaway here is this:
Locate the unoccupied high ground and stake your flag.
Find the gap that lets you go uncontested.
Create a brand story that only you can own.