The Compete Better Problem, 2 Types of B2B Sales & Marketing Teams, How NOT To Launch A Category
Christopher Lochhead ????????????
14X #1 Bestseller: Category Pirates, Play Bigger, 22 Laws of Category Design |Top 0.5% podcaster |Friend to the different |Subscribe ????
Thanks for reading ??
Welcome to this Different Newsletter.
Almost all marketing/strategy/entrepreneur/creator type content is written through the same lens:
How to compete, in an existing market, with a better product, service, brand &/or experience.
This Different newsletter is about how being different creates value.
From scratch.
For your career, company, startup or brand.
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The Compete Better Problem,
Compete.
Better.
Are foundational mental scaffolding for (almost) all business (marketing) strategy.
And the vast majority of the business content that we consume.
No wonder we’re brainwashed to compete.
Now for some (pirate) un-learning…..
The Problem With Compete
The context for the word compete, makes clear that you’re competing against someone.
In a game.
That (already) exists.
Has clear perimeters, and addresses a well understood problem, with a widely excepted solution.
The problem.
One company in new category, after new category earns 76% of the total value created, chasing someone else’s category design is a shareholder value destruction strategy.
Competition (by definition) is for losers.
The Problem With Better
The context for the word better, makes clear that you’re comparing your thing with an existing thing.
Thus, your marketing reinforces that your thing, is not the thing.
And their thing is.
“Pepsi tastes better than Coke”.
(Immediately tells us Coke is the leader)
This, “our product is better than your product” style of marketing is like venmo-ing your marketing budget to the category leader.
Different is Different
Different is new.
(Better is improved.)
Different invites interest.
(Better invites comparison.)
Different is creative.
(Competitive is destructive)
Different is generative.
(Competitive is subtractive)
Different is exponential.
(Better is incremental.)
Different attacks the status quo.
(Better attacks competition.)
Different is customer problem centered.
(Competition is comparison product centered.)
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Everything We Value, We’ve Been Taught To Value
In 1947, the diamond manufacturing company De Beers deployed one of the most successful category designs and culture-shifting advertising campaigns of all time with the tagline, “A diamond is forever.”
This campaign eventually evolved into commercials in the late 1970s where De Beers, quite literally, defines how much a man should spend on an engagement ring for their significant other.?
“How else could two months’ salary last forever? A diamond is forever.”?
To this day, you can ask your friend how much you should spend on a ring, and they’ll say, “Well the standard is two months' salary.”
(One of the more legendary jobs of category value creation the world has ever seen, matey!)
This is true for life itself.
Radical jihadists do not value life .
And they have taught millions of people, the greatest thing they can do is die.
Not live.
Everything we value, we’ve been taught to value.
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There are 150 million startups in the world.
That means vast majority of these founders worldwide are working hard, right now, to fit their product into an existing market.
They are competing.
With a better product, brand and business model.
And that’s why (sadly) 149 million could fail.
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How (not) To Launch A New Category, Product & Company
A new company (with a lot of buzz) called Humane just launched its new product, company & category.
(The AI Pin)
And it's a giant fail.
(sadly)
This video is (exactly) what not to do.
They never tell us:
-What is an AI pin?
-Why you should want it?
-What problem it solves?
Instead.
They puke features.
Hoping we figure it out.
Now watch this??
Matt Bertulli, co-founder & CEO of Lomi is a buddy of ours.
(we're advisors/investors in Lomi)
So we're biased.
But for a reason.
This is what a legendary new category/product/company intro looks like.
Note how Matthew Bertulli goes from high-level, motivating visionary category POV words, like the opening,
“What if changing the world was as easy as pushing a button”
to clear details about what the product does, how it works and most importantly:
“why you’re going to want one in your home”.
This is category design mastery.
And it has led to Lomi being the fasted growing new kitchen appliance in two decades.
The future for the AI Pin category is unknown.
But what we do know is the failure rate for startups is over 90%.
And that history has laid to waste countless “isn’t our our new carbadigulator cool” product focused companies.
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The two types of B2B tech sales teams
1. Those who respond to RFPs
2. Those who help customers write RFPs.
领英推荐
The two types of B2B tech marketing teams
1. Those who fight for (existing) demand (market share)
2. Those who create (new) demand by category designing new markets
(write the RFP for the market)
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Shalom.
Stay legendary my Pirate friend,
Christopher Lochhead
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Copyright Category Pirates , LLC
Public Notifications, Legal Warnings
& Scooby Snacks
The creator of this Different Newsletter failed cutting & folding in kindergarten.
All Different Newsletters contain nuts ??
Before acting on anything you just read please contact your lawyer, doctor, message therapist, marriage counselor, spiritual advisor, yoga instructor, bar tender, bud tender, spouse, category designer and mommy.
The creator of this Different Newsletter:
-can’t find his book
-does not possess a GED
-was thrown out of school at 18
-is considered radically incompetent (by many)
-possess multiple learning differences (aka superpowers)
-was likely hangin’ out with Mary Jane when he wrote this
-and The Economist once called him, “off-putting to some”
Book reviewers on the internet have called his work:
“Very shallow”
“Incredibly mediocre”
“Easily one of the worst things I've had the displeasure of listening to.”
And one of the all-time greatest business book reviews:
“This book reads more like an MLM or cult brochure.”
( Jerry Colonna )
I don’t feel tardy.
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
A 3,000-year-old mummy can still have fingerprints.
“Keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes upon the road”
What Loch Ness monster hunters found after biggest search in 50 years
The left lane, is the passing lane.
For the love of God.
Our real newsletter is called Category Pirates ????
Much of the content is Different is lifted directly (or “inspired” greatly) from Category Pirates . (our business writing band, Eddie Yoon Katrina Kirsch ???? & me)
There are (random) strategically placed spelling, grammar and formatting mistakes in this newsletter.
If you think Kid Rock is training bears in Michigan to take over blue states with lasers on their heads and Bud lights, then consider these strategic mistakes part of a secret code that unlocks Federal Government servers in Bumsquat Youdaho to the files that prove the The Statue of Limitations was created by Aliens.
If you’re not a Kid Rock Bears, the errors herein exist because Lochhead is lazy… and wants to write in an unfettered, real(ish) time way and an editor would slow the roll.
.. this is the part of Different, that is like the very end of a movie...
….where some directors throw in silly shit for the fun of it….
....assuming by this point, people have left the theater...
...but for some reason you're still reading...
…and I'm still writing...
Thinking about thinking is the most important kind of thinking.
Marketing is.
Sales at scale.
What’s it like to be “Queer In The C-Suite”? Meet Jim Fielding. Author of “All Pride, No Ego”.
Everything is the way that it is, because somebody (like you) changed the way that it was.
Categories make brands.
If you're not enjoying this (different) newsletter, you're among the vast majority of people on planet earth.
If (by some breach of your better judgement) you are enjoying this Kentucky bourbon smooth read, with just the right level of AD/HD insanity…
Ever sit next to a loud chewer on a plane?
How about someone clipping their toe nails. Next to you. On a plane!?
Big Foot Lives: Colorado tourists share video a Bigfoot
Marketing is sales at scale.
The number of Californians ages 18 to 30 who reported having no sexual partners in the prior year reached a decade high of 38%.
Australia is wider than the moon.
Nikon photo contest reveals fantastic microscopic world that surrounds us
It's illegal to own just one guinea pig in Switzerland. (the government doesn’t want them to be lonely)
Is this newsletter still going?
Is a business newsletter allowed to have all of this shit at the end?
Is he allowed to say shit?
Maybe we should report this newsletter to someone?
McKinsey doesn’t say shit in the McKinsey Quartly.
This must be over soon?
Giraffes are 30 times more likely to get hit by lightning than people.
You might like this deep dive into “The Value of Your Value”
On Aug. 15, 2023, scientists from Peru and the U.S. discovered a new species of snake in Peru's Otishi National Park.
They named Tachymenoides harrisonfordi to honor the Star Wars actor for his environmental advocacy.
(It’s a kids show ??)
Contrary to the rumors, This Different Newsletter is not associated with Harvard University.
We are in no-way-shape-or-form funded or produced by Harvard.
Never miss it. Subscribe here.
Did you know, your ears never stop growing.
This Different Newsletter really ties the room together.
Hey, thanks for hanging out for the extra (silly) scooby snacks at the end...hope you have a legendary day…..
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Hold Fast.
Published by Category Pirates .
Sponsored By Bad Tuna Industries.
Makers of Bad Tuna Mouthwash Wipes?
exactly what i thougt when i’v seen the AI pin. just another carbodingolator
CEO at Reboot.io | Author | Reunion: Leadership and the Longing to Belong is available now.
12 个月You didn't tell me I wasn't getting paid for that hour! Sheesh. ??