Category creation in security and resilience
Category creation is the most expensive positioning decision available. It is occasionally the only one that works. The difference is whether a budget line exists for what you sell.
How do you create a category in security or resilience?
You name the buyer's problem, not your product, then get analysts, buyers, and eventually competitors to adopt the term. It works when other people use your name for the problem without being paid to. Most attempts fail because the name describes the product.
Category creation is naming a problem so clearly that buyers, analysts and eventually competitors use your name for it. It works when other people use the term without being paid to.
When is it worth attempting?
When the buyer has the problem and no shared language for it.
If they already have budget, a shortlist and a term, you are entering an established category and your job is to be obviously different inside it. Both are fundable. Being unclear about which one you are playing is the expensive part, because the milestones and the spend differ.
What has to be true?
3 things, and the order matters.
- The problem is real and currently unnamed, or named badly.
- You can describe it in language a buyer recognizes from their own week.
- You can hold the term long enough for consistency to become the signal.
How does a term get adopted?
Repetition by people who do not work for you.
Customers first, in their own words. Then analysts, who choose the vocabulary buying committees inherit. Then competitors, which feels like theft and is actually the proof — competitor adoption is what convinces a committee the problem is legitimate.
What does it cost?
Consistency more than volume. The term has to appear in the same form, in every surface, for long enough that the market stops testing it.
Most attempts fail because the name describes the product instead of the buyer’s situation, or because the company changes the wording every 2 quarters.
What people ask
How long does category creation take?
Eighteen months to three years for the market to reflect the language back, with earlier signals from practitioners and partners. Shorter timelines usually mean the category already existed.
What is the difference between category creation and repositioning?
Repositioning changes how you are understood inside an existing frame. Category creation changes the frame. Repositioning is faster, cheaper, and correct far more often.
Can a small company create a category?
Yes, and small companies do it more often than large ones, because consistency matters more than budget. What a small company cannot do is create one while also changing its story every quarter.
Should we trademark the category name?
Generally no. A term you own legally is a term competitors cannot adopt, and adoption is the mechanism that makes a category real.