Should you create a new category? 🤔

↳ you need time, money, and a killer product 🚀

(three things most startups don't have 🥴)

Everyone wants to create a category... but is this smart?

The most common reason given for creating a category:

✅ "If we create the category, we'll OWN the market!"

But this actually obscures what's really going on.

Take spicy mustard.

The first creators of spicy mustard had a choice.

→ Should we use an existing category to describe our new sauce?

→ Or should we create an entirely new category?

If they had chosen to create a NEW category, several things would happen at once...

❌ they would essentially have to create demand for the new sauce (which requires a ton of time, marketing dollars, etc. to even generate AWARENESS).

❌ they would remove the frame of reference (existing mustard), which makes positioning the product extremely difficult

❌ they'd be asking the grocery stores to create a brand new shelf just for their new sauce — which relies on OTHER brands coming into the space and using the same new definition

Instead, they leaned into an existing category (i.e. "mustard") and created a differentiated product that would live on the EXISTING shelf.

✅ this makes positioning the product EXTREMELY simple

✅ this capitalizes on the EXISTING demand

✅ this builds on existing use cases for mustard