Marketers often mistake strategic positioning (finding a niche) for true category creation. A new category introduces a solution to a problem customers haven't yet articulated, requiring education on why they need a thing they've never bought before.

To truly change a brand's narrative, marketing's 'talking the talk' is insufficient. The product experience itself must embody the desired story. This 'walking the walk' through the product is the most powerful way to shape core brand perception and make the narrative shareable.

Effective marketing isn't about telling your company's story. It's about inviting the customer into a story where they are the hero facing a problem. Your brand should act as the guide that provides the tool (your product) to help them succeed and win the day.

Positioning can be 50% of a product's success. A book about "habits" (a timeless desire) will vastly outperform the same book framed as being about "deliberate practice" (a niche concept). Don't make the audience work to understand why they should care; connect directly to an enduring need.

Bootstrappers lack the capital and time to establish a new market category. A better strategy is to anchor your product in a known category (e.g., "site audit tool") and then use your unique features (e.g., "that also fixes the issues") as a key differentiator.

If a rebrand coincides with defining a new category, conduct two distinct internal training sessions. First, teach the team about the new category—the market, the problem, the landscape. Only then, in a separate session, train them on your new brand's specific position and story to avoid confusion.

Instead of inventing a completely new market, position your product as a sub-category of something people already understand (e.g., "like live chat, but for sales"). This "horseless carriage" approach makes innovation digestible by grounding it in a familiar concept, as Drift did.

Marketing often mistakenly positions the product as the hero of the story. The correct framing is to position the customer as the hero on a journey. Your product is merely the powerful tool or guide that empowers them to solve their problem and achieve success, which is a more resonant and effective narrative.

To create a successful new product, find the balance between what consumers already know and what is new. If a product is too familiar, it lacks differentiation. If it's too novel, it becomes foreign and difficult for consumers to adopt, creating a high barrier to entry.