Consider these two approaches if challenges our customers face in using video better Part IV: your team needs help imagining what than anyone else. That’s why the onus is on us to drive How to Talk With category design looks like the market forward and give ourselves the best chance of becoming the long-term category king. Your Team About If your team needs help understanding how and why Anna and the team at Narrative Science chose category Category Design category design might apply to your specific situation, design for similar reasons. “For us, the choice to create consider these two approaches. I learned these from a category was around technology innovation within (and Get Them Daniel Palay, a B2B marketing consultant who has the larger data and analytics space,” she explained. “We designed categories in both marketing automation built products that have new technology that no one Excited) technology and supply chain and logistics software. has seen before, and it didn’t fit into any neat ‘boxes’ of analytics software that people buy today. So we decided THE STRATEGIC IMPERATIVE to define our own category.” According to Daniel, “The strategic imperative is an approach for when you have something different. So THE TACTICAL WEAPON different, in fact, that it’s hurting you in the marketplace The tactical weapon approach allows you to build a new The strategic imperative because of how difficult it is to make direct comparisons category position by creating contrast with an existing against competitors.” In other words, if the only way one. “Sometimes it’s easier to firebomb an existing “is an approach for when in which your company is going to stand a chance at category than dominate it,” said Daniel. “If there is you have something winning deals is to break free of existing categories, some common element shared by all of the main players then not pursuing category design is going to cause a in an existing category, find a way to position that as a different. So different, lot of pain. weakness rendering the entire category obsolete. The in fact, that it’s hurting This is exactly why we chose category design at category design process becomes about determining you in the marketplace BombBomb. As you may or may not know, we help its replacement.” business people build and foster relationships through Drift is one example of this approach done well. because of how difficult the use of personal, one-to-one video. Instead of having Early on, Drift was just another player in the live chat it is to make direct to rely on typed-out text or scheduling a Zoom call, category – a market that soon became crowded and we allow you to get “face-to-face” by sending video commoditized. Drift needed to stand out from these comparisons against messages in virtually any channel. competitors, but it couldn’t just do that by trying to competitors. While this is a growing category (our customers now convince the market it had a “better” product than ” send about 100,000 videos every day), it doesn’t have everyone else. — Daniel Palay a name yet. Historically, we and our competitors have Instead, Drift chose to develop a new category by been placed in the “video hosting” and “other video creating a contrast with website forms and marketing software” categories on G2 – neither of which are a good automation software. By claiming that requiring fit. Unlike most companies, trying to carve out a niche customers to fill out forms (and having to wait for in an existing category would only create confusion and a reply) was an outdated way of interacting with serve to penalize us. customers, Drift drove awareness and demand for the In other words, we have a strategic imperative to new category it was creating, called conversational design this category. We are already in the best position marketing. This new category is all about immediate to emerge as its leader. Our team has sent over half interactions with customers, mainly through the use a million one-to-one videos, and we understand the of intelligent chatbots. The Newcomer’s Guide to Category Design 35