Category Creation

6Focus on the People in Your Market—Not Just Your Products

How can we learn to be great at something? A few generations ago, the answer might have been to read about the craft at the local library or apprentice under a recognized expert. In the Internet age, a simple web search or “Hey, Siri” can lead to a limitless spring of information and education—how-to videos, detailed blog posts, or even following business luminaries on social media. Consumers today are learning new languages online, sharing recipes on international cuisines, and even graduating from accredited universities, all from the comfort of their laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. This desire to realize our fullest potential as humans is, according to American psychologist Abraham Maslow, our highest motivation for psychological health once our most basic needs (such as physical survival, safety, and others) are met. Aiding in our efforts towards self-actualization is the abundance of educational content available online on quite literally any topic, whether professionally created, community/user generated, or otherwise.

As we discussed in Chapter Two, category creation is in and of itself a subset of B2H marketing—a belief that behind every logo that companies are trying to market and sell to is a human, somewhere on Maslow’s pyramid and hierarchy of needs (see Figure 6.1 as a reference). Unique to category creation is the realization that no company in the world is paying attention to that particular human ...