If Your Brand Comes Before Your Category, You’re Doing It Wrong

It’s shocking how many MBAs, entrepreneurs, creators, and very smart investors prioritize the brand BEFORE the category.

Our name. Our logo. Our team. Our “mission statement.”

Well, here’s a fact: Categories make brands — not the other way around.

• Brand marketing is something we do to customers.
• Category marketing is something we do for customers.

I’ll break down the difference.

Legendary Entrepreneurs, Innovators, And Creators Don’t Design Brands

They design new categories for their breakthrough products and business models to live within.

• No crowdfunding, no GoFundMe.
• No electric vehicles, no Tesla.
• No designer menswear, no Ralph Lauren.

Before you even think about branding, your company needs a category to market itself within.

This idea has become terribly misunderstood over the years, so let me clarify. You DO NOT want to market within an EXISTING market. Instead, you want to create a NEW and DIFFERENT category/market, which you now have free reign to market WITHIN.