Understanding the Job of a Market Category
Many companies think that positioning starts with choosing a market category because they believe it’s the most important part. In my positioning work with clients, teams sometimes become so obsessed with market categories that it’s hard to get them to think about anything else. In my opinion, market category is a key component of positioning, but it’s not the most important one, nor is it a good starting point for developing great positioning. I think in marketing, we do a lot of surface-level talking about market categories. Here’s my thinking about what I believe the job of a market category is and what it can and cannot do for your positioning and your business. I like to think of market category as a way of setting context for a product. Context is how we make sense of the world, especially when it comes to new things we have never encountered before. My favorite analogy for helping folks think about market categories is that they serve much the same purpose as the opening scene
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