The 3-Step Framework To Name, Frame, And Claim Your Category

To design a category, you have to frame a new problem and a new solution in a provocative way.

It should make the customer STOP, tilt their head, and immediately wonder, “This is for something different. Do I need this?”

In order to do that, you have to be the trusted authority on that new language — and subsequently, that new category.

It all starts with how you Frame, Name, and Claim it.

Whoever Frames The Problem Owns The Solution

There’s a reason why men can have “erectile dysfunction” and not “impotence.”

Impotence has very negative implications attached to the word. It implies that he’s “not manly” or “unable to be a man.” That’s not a word very many men want to be associated with — meaning men don’t want to admit to having such a problem. (Hard to sell a solution to a problem no one wants to admit to having!)

In order to solve this problem, Pfizer (the makers of Viagra) had to invent a disease, called “erectile dysfunction.”

They made impotence a more approachable problem. And then they shortened it to “ED” to make it even softer and safer to associate with. It’s a whole lot easier for a man to say, “I am experiencing ED” than to…