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A Marketer's Guide to Category Design: How to Escape the "Better" Trap, Dam the Demand, and Launch a Lightning Strike Strategy

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A mediocre category designer will beat a world-class marketer every day of the week.

The reason is because all marketing sits within a context. "He or she who frames the problem owns the solution." Without this context—without a category—your marketing becomes nothing but screaming, shouting, and pitching customers with deals, discounts, and other short-term tactics in the hopes of landing a sale. But are you building your business? More importantly, are any of these efforts going to compound over time and establish you as the category leader?

Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon, and Nicolas Cole—otherwise known as the Category Pirates—are the authorities of category creation and category design in the digital world. Pirate Christopher is a three times CMO, Pirate Eddie has driven over eight billion dollars in annual sales generated for companies, and Pirate Cole is a serial writing entrepreneur. Together, they have put together A Marketer's Guide To Category Design.

In this book, you will

There is a new category of "human" in today's Native Digitals (people under the age of 35 years old). And if you are a Native Analog, then all of your marketing efforts need to sit in this new context called, "For Native Digitals, the digital world is the real world." Why so many marketers, entrepreneurs, executives, and even investors fall for "The Big Brand Lie" (falsly believing it's the company's "brand" customers care about). The "Better" Why comparison marketing never works, and causes comparison-focused companies to fight over only 24 percent of the market. How to successfully execute a "Dam the Demand" strategy, stopping customers in the "old" world, and moving them over to the new and different future you are creating. How to launch a "Lightning Strike Strategy"—and why "Peanut Butter Marketing" (spread out evenly throughout the year) is a guaranteed path to irrelevancy. What most marketers don't understand about Black Friday, and why discount campaigns and coupons are a bad way to grow your business. And finally, the difference between content marketing that captures people's attention and makes a difference, versus content that goes nowhere. If you are a marketer, entrepreneur, or an executive who wants to approach marketing through a category lens, this is the book for you.

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Published May 12, 2023

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Category Pirates

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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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81 reviews5 followers
March 16, 2022
Without a category, marketing becomes nothing but screaming and shouting at customers. Who can scream the loudest and get the most attention? Category design is all about being different and standing out from the crowd. Create your own category, create your own space and become a Category King/Queen.

The Category Pirates will show you exactly how through this book. With frameworks, guidelines, insights, and real-world examples, this book will help you become a Category King/Queen.
5 reviews
May 24, 2022
A fantastic inspiring read to understand how to position in marketing. Highly recommended for founders and CEOs who struggle with imposter syndrome.
4 reviews
September 23, 2023
Informative book with a lot of real-world examples. Would love more tips on how to apply it across different industries or firm sizes.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews

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