email results they were after, it was better relationships pain) and to a future state (where that pain is solved). Part III: with the people they do business with. The problem we The strategic narrative comes from Andy Raskin, a top solve isn’t email per se. It’s the fact that bots, spam, and advisor to B2B SaaS companies. It presents a change A 30,000 the misuse of marketing automation have conditioned that’s already happening in the world and shows how Foot View Of customers to ignore and mistrust the communication this change will create winners and losers. The narrative The Category they receive from businesses. then presents your category as a tool that will help a But remember, your customers don’t always know potential customer emerge as a winner. Design Process what they want. “Customers will only tell you they According to Andy, “A category is a strategic narrative. want better,” Kevin Maney told me. “They’ll never see It’s a narrative about the new game that the winners a different solution.” As a category designer, the onus are playing (and why the old game is obsolete) that is on you to provide that. buyers embrace to make sense of their world.” Here’s If you need help defining the problem your category my interview with Andy. solves, here’s a quick guide. Both of these approaches are similar in that they speak A category is a to a specific type of story that humans are wired to strategic narrative. 2. Create a category story and respond to. It’s called The Hero’s Journey. It’s a concept “It’s a narrative about category name developed by Joseph Campbell, a professor and author Once you have a firm grasp on the problem you’re whose research has influenced a wide range of modern the new game that the solving (and whom you’re solving it for), you need to writers and authors, including George Lucas’s work on winners are playing come up with a way to talk about the new solution to Star Wars. (and why the old game this problem. This is where your category name and The basic idea is that a story’s hero is faced with a something called a category story come into play. disruptive change to his world. The only way he can is obsolete) that buyers Category story conquer this change is through some externally- embrace to make sense granted power. Once he wields this power, he’s able Let’s start with the category story, because it’s this to surmount these challenges and return to a restored of their world. exercise that will inform your category name. world that’s better than the one he left. Find more on ” A category story is what tells the world why a new the Hero’s Journey here. If you can capture this idea in — Christopher Lochhead category needs to exist. It might be the most important your category story, you’re on the right track. element in category design because it’s the idea upon Regardless of what approach you use to create a story which the rest of your messaging will be based. There around your category, it will need to accomplish the are a couple of ways to approach your category story: following things: the point-of-view and the strategic narrative. • Highlight the pain that your audience experiences The point of view is a concept that comes from Play from the problem you defined earlier Bigger. While marketers have long enjoyed introducing • Demonstrate how current approaches to solving things that are “new”, a point of view shows the world this problem don’t exist or are no longer adequate why a category needs to exist. It’s a short narrative (or “movie-trailer” as the co-authors refer to it), that • P oint to your new category as a new (and different) shows the market what the world will look like once this solution to solving this problem new category is established. It’s framed on that idea of • Create contrast between life before the category moving the world from a former state (that was causing and what life will be like after the category The Newcomer’s Guide to Category Design 21