Buried Treasure: Category Design Fundamentals

How to create a new category—or redesign an existing one.

Dear Friend, Subscriber, and Category Pirate,

This week’s Buried Treasure is all about Category Design Fundamentals.

These are mini-books of ours that explain some of the core frameworks, insights, and mental models required for you to create your own category.

Be sure not to miss these (our archives are deep!)—and when you’re ready to become a Category Designer, hop aboard The Pirate Ship and subscribe below:

The Magic Triangle: Why Category Design Is The Single Point Of Failure

In The Magic Triangle, we explain why Category Design is the single point of failure for companies.

• You can have a legendary product

• You can have a legendary company (team & business model)

• But if you don’t have a legendary category, you are going to find yourself in dangerous waters.

The Category Design Scorecard

In The Category Design Scorecard, we give you a framework for being able to objective spot Category Creators out in the wild:

1. (Area 1) Category POV: Does the company have a clear “Point of View” of their category?

1. (Area 2) Future Category Reimagined & Without Compromise: Does the company cast a compelling future—free of these fundamental problems, compromises, and trade-offs inherent to the category?

1. (Area 3) Radically Different Offer + Business Model: How does this new category get delivered to the customer, both through a breakthrough product/service/offer, but also through a breakthrough business model?

1. (Area 4) Data Flywheel: Does the company generate data about customer/consumer demand/preferences (be it intentional or as a side effect) that creates a unique opportunity and advantage to anticipate the future of consumer demand and any category shifts?

1. (Area 5) Depth & Degree of Customer Outcomes: Does the company generate satisfied/ecstatic customers/consumers?

This framework will forever change the way you look at startups & publicly traded companies—and help you decide whether they are as “different” as they say they are.

The Big Brand Lie: How Categories Make Brands & Why Brand Marketers Never Believe It

In The Big Brand Lie, we explain how “the brand cult” began, and why the single biggest mistake companies make is marketing their brand—and not their category.

And if blindly “branding” customers with a hot poker is mistake numero uno, then mistake number two is taking their brand and doing what Ries & Trout famously languaged as “line extension”: extending it across multiple categories.

• Disney+

• Apple TV+

• ESPN+

• Hulu+

• Samsung TV+

• BET+

• Paramount+

Did we learn nothing from Google+? 

8 Category Levers: How To Build A Massive, Pacific Ocean-Sized Differentiation Moat

In 8 Category Levers, we break down the 8 levers you can push and pull to differentiate your business. And the more of these levers you push and pull, the more “differentiated” you become.

• Lever 1: Radically Different Benefit (For A Radically Different Problem)

• Lever 2: Radically Different Brand

• Lever 3: Radically Different Experience

• Lever 4: Radically Different Price

• Lever 5: Radically Different Manufacturing

• Lever 6: Radically Different Distribution

• Lever 7: Radically Different Marketing

• Lever 8: Radically Different Profit Model

The more of these levers you push and pull, the more “differentiated” you become.

Become A Category Designer

Want to unlock 50+ mini-books on Category Creation and Category Design, and receive new mini-books straight to your inbox?

Hop aboard!

Arrrrrrr,

Category Pirates

Eddie Yoon

Nicolas Cole

Christopher Lochhead

PS: Don’t forget to grab a copy (or gift!) of one of our books:

• ❄️ Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create A Category Of One

• ⚒️ The Category Design Toolkit: Beyond Marketing: 15 Frameworks For Creating & Dominating Your Niche

• 📣 A Marketer's Guide To Category Design: How To Escape The "Better" Trap, Dam The Demand, And Launch A Lightning Strike Strategy