Why Marketers Have Category Creation, Product-Market Fit, And Branding All Wrong

Too often, people believe major misconceptions about branding, product, and creating differentiated categories.

This can lead to wasting tons of money on campaigns — or even worse, losing your chance to dominate your category.

Here are the most common beliefs you don’t want to get wrong when it comes to Category Design:

1: Category Creation Is A Bad Idea

Most people believe Category Design is who-ha, malarkey, and/or B.S.

Which is why, in The Big Category Lie, I wrote about the 8 reasons why people believe Category Design doesn’t work (and explained that these excuses aren’t true).

For example:

“You can’t create demand out of thin air.”

Except everything is the way it is because someone changed the way it was.

• In 1997, there was zero demand for “the Cloud.”
• In 1998, there was zero demand for “Athleisure.”
• In 2004, there was zero demand for “Energy Shots.”
• In 2009, there was zero demand for “Cryptocurrencies.”