3. Bring your category to life position. Ideally, this should live in a document called Part III: a messaging framework. Just like designers have a A category name and category story are just the visual identity guide, a messaging framework provides A 30,000 building blocks. Ultimately, the concepts you develop a reference for how to talk about your company and through those exercises need to be supported by your products in different contexts. Foot View Of your positioning, messaging, visual identity, product The Category roadmap, and pricing and packaging. Here’s how you’ll Depending on how radically you need to depart from need to think about each: the past, you might need full rework of your messaging. Design Process Be prepared, as this work will also take time to get right. Positioning But remember, you are trying to show the world that Positioning is simply the idea you want to conjure up in you’re different from anything else it’s encountered the minds of your buyers when they think about you. A before, and the words can go a long way to accomplish positioning strategy is often created in the context of that. Need help with this building a messaging how you’ll relate to competitors. framework? Here’s a guide for getting started. If the category Here’s how Andy Cunningham, one of the top Visual identity “potential is real, you’ll marketing and PR people in Silicon Valley, thinks about Chances are your visual identity may need some see competitors start positioning: “Now that you understand what category revisions to help establish your category design goals you’re in, what’s your differentiator? What is your role? as well. Maybe there are new attitudes your brand to emerge pretty What is your relevance? To me, that’s what positioning needs to reflect, or perhaps you want to upgrade to your quickly. Baking in your is. It’s the dot on the map inside that category.” Check visual identity as a way of signaling new intentions. For out my interview with Andy about positioning. some, this might represent a small change to colors or differentiation from the But category designers also have to answer the question: typography. beginning – preferably how is category leadership defined? “If the category For others, it might represent an entire rebrand. For one with a high barrier potential is real, you’ll see competitors start to emerge example, when Splunk developed a “data-to-everything” pretty quickly,” said Gina who also built the supply strategy, it created a new pink-and-orange livery to to entry – will insulate chain visibility category while at FourKites. “Baking in help announce the change. Remember, “Brands, or you somewhat. your differentiation from the beginning – preferably category leaders, die by a death of a thousand cuts,” ” one with a high barrier to entry – will insulate you says Anna Schena. “Small things that take away from — Andy Cunningham somewhat.” your brand, or the category you are creating, build over To help you build a position of differentiation based time. Even though they seem trivial, they can make all on your strengths, check out Andy’s book, called Get to of the difference.” Aha!11. It will help you find out if your company is wired to be a mother (customer-experience driven company), Product roadmap a mechanic (product-driven company), or a missionary Your product roadmap will do one of two things: it will (concept-driven company). At BombBomb, we found bring you closer to your category design goals, or it will out we’re a Mother, and we are using that to help us pull you in the wrong direction. Hopefully, though, your build future-proof our category leadership. plans for category design can serve as a lens through which to view your product roadmap. You can start Messaging with a simple question: does this work help us build Once you develop your positioning strategy, you’ll need the category, or not? If you’re not sure, then it probably to create the right messaging to help you establish that means you haven’t gotten enough clarity on what your The Newcomer’s Guide to Category Design 24