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Why Category Designers Must Avoid The ā€œBetterā€ Trap At All Costs

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Why Category Designers Must Avoid The ā€œBetterā€ Trap At All Costs

How to avoid competing for only 24% of the value opportunity of a category.

Category Pirates šŸ“ā€ā˜ ļø
Sep 30, 2022
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Why Category Designers Must Avoid The ā€œBetterā€ Trap At All Costs

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Dear Friend, Subscriber, and Category Pirate,

This Category Design Tip shares how to stop competing for a category’s table scraps.

On the Pirate Ship, we call this The ā€œBetterā€ Trap. Companies, entrepreneurs, writers, creators, and marketers fall into this trap any time they compete on features, price, and ā€œbrand.ā€ This comparison marketing drives down margins collectively and competitors are stuck fighting for one tiny sliver of the pie.

To stay savvy and avoid the trap (our mini-books are the best maps), hop aboard The Pirate Ship and subscribe below:

ā€œBetterā€ is a trap.

Anytime a company makes a comparison statement, they are falling into the ā€œbetterā€ trap.

Words that end in -er and ā€œmost/more-thanā€ statements imply comparison. Because in order for something to be fast-er or smart-er or cheap-er, something else has to exist to give it meaning.

Here are some easy-to-spot examples:

  • Faster (faster than...what?)

  • Smarter (smarter than...what?)

  • Cheaper (cheaper than...what?)

  • More economical (more economical than...what?)

  • Most efficient (most efficient compared to...what?)

What’s really happening here is the company is making the unconscious, unquestioned, unconsidered, undiscussed decision to carry their brand into someone else’s category and try to convince the world that their product is ā€œbetter.ā€ It happens all the time. And it’s always a disaster.

Even the world’s most successful, most legendary marketers make this mistake.

Just look at Pepsi.

For more than 100 years, Pepsi’s entire marketing strategy has been in comparison to the category king of soda: Coca-Cola. Over the past 10 to 20 years, has Pepsi’s ā€œbetter productā€ marketing strategy been working?

No.

If anything, it has further reinforced the fact that Coca-Cola is the king of the soda category.

Pepsi’s market share has been falling for more than a decade—which means, despite the company spending tens of millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads, these efforts haven’t had any meaningful impact on dethroning Coca-Cola’s leadership position.

Rather than falling into a never-ending comparison competition, category designers focus on creating a different future.

Don’t be ā€œBetter.ā€ Be DIFFERENT!

The need to draw a product or feature comparison is irrelevant when you’re the Category King.

Instead of having a conversation about the past, you have a conversation with your customers and investors about the future—specifically, the future potential of the category.

For example: Elon Musk doesn’t talk about Tesla in the context of gasoline-powered engines, American car manufacturers, and legacy brands. He talks about Tesla in the future: a world where gasoline doesn’t exist and clean energy saves our planet.

So, what’s the value of Tesla?

  • If you valued the company through the lens of Ford’s historical performance, you were probably one of the many investors who lost their shorts shorting Tesla stock.

  • And if you valued the company through a category lens focused on future category potential, you were probably one of the many retail investors who became a Tesla millionaire.

Category designers, like Elon Musk, focus on creating net-new potential—and they get to enjoy the 76% slice of revenue pie as a result.

Whenever we point out the ā€œbetterā€ trap, the most common thing we hear back is, ā€œI get it, but this sounds risky.ā€

If that was your first thought, you’re likely in The ā€œBetterā€ Trap—and it’s time to escape.

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 best-selling books:

  • ā„ļø Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create A Category Of One

  • āš’ļø The Category Design Toolkit: Beyond Marketing: 15 Frameworks For Creating & Dominating Your Niche

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

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Why Category Designers Must Avoid The ā€œBetterā€ Trap At All Costs

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Why Category Designers Must Avoid The ā€œBetterā€ Trap At All Costs

categorypirates.substack.com
Ray Klerck
Writes In Bad Taste
Oct 7, 2022

Love your work, very refreshing perspectives. I'm sold.

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Arjit Raj
Writes Human Work History
Oct 6, 2022

It is not true that ā€œElon Musk doesn’t talk about Tesla in the context of gasoline-powered enginesā€. He often shows comparison demos on stage with gasoline engines.

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