Growth & expansion · strategy atlas
Category creation
what it means
Instead of competing for share of an existing market, defining and naming an entirely new category that the business can credibly claim to lead from day one.
a real example
Several well-known SaaS companies grew by naming a new category (rather than positioning as 'a better version of X'), becoming the reference point new entrants get compared against.
when to use it
When a product genuinely does something existing category labels don't capture well, and the business can sustain the education effort a new category requires.
when it backfires
Category creation is expensive and slow — it requires teaching an entire market a new concept, which smaller businesses often can't afford to fund long enough to succeed.
put it into practice