Engage with and build a robust ecosystem around your category. By doing so, you can gain support from partners, suppliers, and customers. Salesforce did this by building a vast ecosystem of apps and integrations around its CRM platform, reinforcing its position as the category king.

Leveraging the Ecosystem

Categories have life cycles that need to be managed actively. This involves constant innovation and adaptation. The rise and evolution of personal computers, led by companies like Microsoft, demonstrate how to manage a category from inception through growth and maturity.

Managing the Category Life Cycle

Traditional metrics might not apply. Instead, measure the success of your category creation efforts. The success of Apple’s App Store isn’t just in revenue but in how it reshaped the software industry and developer ecosystem.

Measuring Success Differently

Category design involves product, company, and category strategy working in harmony. Amazon’s approach to e-commerce, cloud computing, and smart devices shows how these three dimensions can drive massive success when aligned.

The Three-dimentional Strategy

The book begins by emphasizing that companies should aim to create and dominate new categories. Just like how Apple revolutionized the smartphone market, businesses should think about designing a category rather than competing in existing ones. The authors introduce the concept of “category kings,” which are companies that own and rule their category.

Category Design as Strategy

Finally, creating a lasting impact and legacy is the ultimate goal. True category kings leave a legacy that transcends their products. The enduring influence of brands like Coca-Cola, which created and dominated the soft drink category, showcases the long-term impact of successful category design.

Legacy & Longevity

Become the evangelist for your category. This means consistently promoting the category’s value and educating the market. Steve Jobs was a master at this, constantly communicating the revolutionary nature of Apple’s products and their categories

Evangelising the Category

Category kings aren’t just successful; they dominate. This isn’t about being the best in your field but creating a field where you are the best. Think of how Uber didn’t just become a top taxi service; it created the ride-sharing category. This idea shifts the focus from traditional competition to innovative market creation.

The Power of Category Kings

Naming your category is an art. A memorable and descriptive name helps people understand and adopt it faster. Google didn’t just name their search engine; they created a verb. Naming your category effectively plants it firmly in people’s minds.

The Role of Category Name

Use data to understand market needs, track trends, and adjust strategies. Netflix’s data-driven approach to content creation and recommendation systems highlights the importance of leveraging data to stay ahead in a category.

Data-Driven Category Design

Categories evolve through stages: early adopters, tipping point, and mainstream adoption. Recognising these stages helps companies tailor their strategies. Facebook’s evolution from a college network to a global social media platform exemplifies this growth and adaptation process.

Market Categories Evolve

A compelling narrative can shape the perception of a category. The authors argue that you need to tell a powerful story that explains why your category matters and why your company is the leader in that category. Tesla, for instance, didn’t just sell electric cars; it sold a vision of a sustainable future.

The Importance of Narrative

Identify a problem that people didn’t even realise they had, then offer a solution. Airbnb recognised that people wanted affordable, homey travel experiences, creating a new category in the hospitality industry. This discovery is about seeing what others miss and capitalising on it.

Discover a Missing Problem

Developing a detailed plan for your new category is crucial. This includes defining the problem, the solution, and the narrative. Slack did this by transforming workplace communication, turning it from cumbersome email threads into streamlined chat channels. Their blueprint clearly outlined how they would change office communication forever.

Creating a Category Blueprint

Marketing “lightning strikes” are intense, focused bursts of activity that draw massive attention to your category. Apple’s product launches are prime examples, where each event generates global buzz and cements their products in public consciousness.

Creating Lightning Strikes

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The founders of a respected Silicon Valley advisory firm study legendary category-creating companies and reveal a groundbreaking discipline called category design.Winning today isn’t about beating the competition at the old game. It’s about inventing a whole new game—defining a new market category, developing it, and dominating it over time. You can’t build a legendary company without building a legendary category. If you think that having the best product is all it takes to win, you’re going to lose.In this farsighted, pioneering guide, the founders of Silicon Valley advisory firm Play Bigger rely on data analysis and interviews to understand the inner workings of “category kings”— companies such as Amazon, Salesforce, Uber, and IKEA—that give us new ways of living, thinking or doing business, often solving problems we didn’t know we had.In Play Bigger, the authors assemble their findings to introduce the new discipline of category design. By applying category design, companies can create new demand where none existed, conditioning customers’ brains so they change their expectations and buying habits. While this discipline defines the tech industry, it applies to every kind of industry and even to personal careers.Crossing the Chasm revolutionized how we think about new products in an existing market. The Innovator’s Dilemma taught us about disrupting an aging market. Now, Play Bigger is transforming business once again, showing us how to create the market itself.

Category Design as Strategy

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