Being second is an awkward place to be. First gets the headlines. Third gets sympathy. Second gets compared. Constantly. Every meeting. Every sales call. Every pitch. Every time somebody says, “Why wouldn’t I just go with the bigger one?”
In 1962, that was Avis. And the bigger one was Hertz. Not slightly bigger. Dominant.
Hertz controlled roughly 61% of the US rental car market. Avis sat far behind, stuck in second place and struggling to make money. For more than a decade, the company had failed to turn a profit. They weren’t losing because people didn’t know them. They were losing because everybody knew who came first.
Most companies facing that problem do exactly what you’d expect. They pretend it isn’t happening. They talk about innovation. Leadership. Quality. Excellence. The usual parade of words that somehow sound impressive and forgettable at the same time.
Avis tried something else. They admitted it. Publicly. And it changed everything.
The Meeting That Changed the Company
When advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach began working with Avis, they started with a simple question. What is genuinely different about this company?
Not what sounds good in a presentation. Not what investors want to hear. Not what could become true in five years. What is true right now?
The room reportedly went quiet. Then somebody said it. “We’re number two.”
Not exactly the kind of line most marketing departments rush to print on billboards.
But then came the second part. “We try harder.”
And suddenly, everything clicked.
Because being number two meant something. You don’t get to relax when you’re losing. You don’t get complacent. You don’t assume customers will come back automatically. You work harder because you have to. That’s the job. That’s the survival strategy. That’s the whole game. (According to accounts of the campaign’s development and subsequent analysis from advertising historians.)
What looked like a disadvantage became a reason to choose them. Not despite being second. Because of it.
The Line Nobody Expected
The campaign launched with a headline that most executives would have rejected before the meeting had even ended.
“We’re only No. 2 in rent-a-cars. So why go with us?”
Imagine seeing that today. Most brands spend half their budget trying to look bigger than they are. Avis voluntarily told the world they weren’t winning.
Then they explained why that mattered.
Because if you’re number two, every customer matters. Every rental matters. Every interaction matters. You try harder because you don’t have another option.
The campaign wasn’t asking people to ignore reality. It was building on top of it. And people believed it because it sounded true. Not polished. True.
What Happened Next
The results were ridiculous. Within a year, Avis recorded its first profitable year in more than a decade. Over the following years, the campaign transformed the company.
Hertz remained the market leader, but its dominance weakened significantly. Market share shifted. Avis grew. Customers remembered them. And one simple phrase became one of the most famous advertising campaigns ever created.
Not because it was clever. Because it was believable.
Most advertising tries to convince people a company is better than it looks. Avis convinced people by explaining exactly why it looked the way it did. That difference matters.
The Problem With Most Positioning
Founders often tell us the same thing. “We’re not as big as them.”
As if we’ve discovered a state secret.
Everybody already knows. Your customers know. Your competitors know. The prospect looking at your website for twelve seconds before deciding whether to book a call definitely knows.
The question isn’t whether people can see the difference. The question is what the difference means.
Because there are two ways to handle being smaller. The first is to apologise for it. The second is to explain why it creates an advantage.
A smaller agency might respond faster. A smaller consultancy might work directly with the founder. A smaller software company might actually listen when users complain. A smaller team might care more because every client genuinely matters.
Same fact. Different story.
Why This Campaign Still Works Sixty Years Later
Most marketing advice starts from the same assumption. Find your strengths. Talk about your strengths. Hide your weaknesses.
Avis accidentally proved something more useful. Sometimes the weakness is the strength.
Not because the weakness disappears. But because it creates behaviours that customers value.
Nobody chose Avis because they enjoyed supporting second place. They chose Avis because second place had a reason to care more.
The ranking was not the selling point. The consequence of the ranking was.
That’s what made the campaign work. And that’s the part people often miss.
The Dangerous Game of Looking Bigger
There is a strange moment that happens to a lot of growing businesses. They start succeeding. Then they become embarrassed by the thing that made them interesting.
The founder stops mentioning they started in their bedroom. The agency hides the fact that it’s a small team. The consultant avoids talking about their unconventional background.
Everything starts moving toward the same polished, corporate centre. And with every step, they become slightly harder to remember.
Because customers rarely connect with perfection. They connect with specifics.
The thing you’re trying to edit out is often the thing people would have remembered.
Avis could have spent millions trying to look like Hertz. Instead, they built an entire campaign around not being Hertz. That was the advantage.
The Real Lesson
Most brands think positioning is about finding the nicest thing you can say about yourself. Avis showed it is often the opposite.
Positioning is finding the thing everybody can already see, then giving it meaning.
You’re not the biggest. Okay. What does that allow you to do that the biggest can’t?
You’re not the oldest. Good. What does that allow you to question?
You’re not the market leader. Fine. What does that force you to do differently?
The answer is usually more interesting than whatever was in the original marketing plan.
Avis didn’t become memorable because it won. It became memorable because it stopped pretending it already had.
And in doing so, it found the one thing bigger competitors could never honestly claim.
They tried harder.
Sometimes the thing holding your brand back isn’t the disadvantage. It’s the amount of energy you’re spending trying not to talk about it.