Category Design
Create and own a new market category instead of competing to be better
- Difficulty
- Expert
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 99%
Category design begins by rejecting the default assumption that a company must enter an established market and win through a better product or stronger brand. Leaders instead identify an unresolved customer problem, design a different solution, and articulate the new future through a clear point of view. Product, company, and category must reinforce one another: the product delivers the solution, the company evangelizes the problem, and the category gives customers a way to understand and choose the difference. Repeated explanation of the problem and category encourages the market to treat the designer as its natural leader. The objective is not novelty for its own sake, but a defensible connection between what makes the company radically different and what customers find radically valuable.
Origin
Extracted from Marketing Against The Grain, where Christopher Lochhead explains the category-design research and ideas developed with his partners and presented in Play Bigger.
Core principles
- 01Different beats incrementally better
- 02The company that designs a category is positioned to lead it
- 03Valuable differentiation begins with a customer problem
- 04A point of view connects a company's difference to a desired future
- 05Category leadership creates stronger positioning than brand awareness alone
How to run it
- 1
Expose the Existing Assumptions
Write down what competitors and customers take for granted about how the market works. Identify where everyone is competing on the same accepted dimensions.
Pro tip Look for assumptions so common that nobody discusses them explicitly.
Watch out Do not mistake a list of competitor features for an analysis of the category.
- 2
Define the Problem Differently
Identify a consequential customer problem that the existing category ignores, normalizes, or frames incorrectly. Explain why continuing with the old approach produces an undesirable future.
Pro tip Describe the problem in the customer's language rather than beginning with your product.
Watch out A trivial inconvenience rarely supports a durable new category.
- 3
Design the New Future
Describe how customers will live, work, or play after adopting the new approach. Make the contrast with the old future concrete and valuable.
Pro tip Test whether people can understand the future without first seeing a product demo.
Watch out Do not define the future merely as using your brand instead of a competitor.
- 4
Name the Category
Give the new solution space a memorable category name that customers can use independently of the company name. Ensure the name communicates a meaningful choice.
Pro tip Use language that makes the category feel like a distinct option, not a product upgrade.
Watch out Renaming an existing category without changing the underlying solution is cosmetic positioning.
- 5
Build the Point of View
Connect the old problem, its consequences, the new category, and the desired outcome in a coherent argument. Use this point of view consistently across leadership, product, sales, and marketing.
Pro tip Structure the argument so that accepting the problem makes the new category feel necessary.
Watch out Avoid turning the point of view into a company-centric list of claims.
- 6
Evangelize and Deliver
Teach the market why the problem and category matter while ensuring the product fulfills the promised difference. Continue reinforcing the category as demand develops.
Pro tip Measure whether customers repeat the category language and problem framing themselves.
Watch out Evangelism without substantive product innovation creates an empty category claim.
In the wild
MrBeast did not follow the traditional path of seeking a television deal. He used direct-to-consumer distribution, invested unusually large amounts in internet-native entertainment, bypassed conventional gatekeepers, and became associated with a different model of digital entertainer. He later carried that category position into businesses using models such as cloud kitchens.
→ His distinct entertainment category created both audience growth and leverage for launching differentiated businesses.
Sara Blakely presented Spanx as an invention in the new category of shapewear rather than marketing it as a better girdle. By evangelizing shapewear, she gave customers a new choice and positioned Spanx as the category's natural leader.
→ Spanx became strongly associated with the shapewear category instead of being evaluated as another undergarment brand.
Common mistakes
Calling a Better Product a New Category
Feature improvements do not constitute category design unless they support a meaningfully different solution and customer future.
Making the Story About the Company
A category point of view should begin with customers, their problem, and the outcome they need rather than the company's accomplishments.
Separating Marketing From Product Innovation
A new category cannot be sustained by messaging alone; the product and business model must deliver the promised difference.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for founders and leaders with a genuinely different product, business model, or view of a customer problem.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for undifferentiated products whose owners only want a new label or advertising slogan.
From the transcript
“category design is a business strategy that empowers leaders to create a different future, to become known for a category they own.”
“They were different, not better. And that's why they stood out.”
“how can I create a place for myself and/or my company where I take what makes us radically different and connect it to something that's…”
From the episode
How To Be #1 In Your Industry
Christopher Lochhead