Scarcity, Build Legendary Products, TikTok Youth LockUp, Chasing Demand & Scooby Snacks
Category Pirates

Scarcity, Build Legendary Products, TikTok Youth LockUp, Chasing Demand & Scooby Snacks

Thanks for reading ??

Welcome to this Different Newsletter.

  • Disliked by many
  • Enjoyed by few

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How To Build Legendary Products

Most people think being great at product.

Means building great products.


The legends know... Being great at product, means solving great (different) problems. (That's why legendary product people, study Category Designer ??)

????

TikTok Take Over

?TikTok is the top search engine for more than half of Gen Z

?6 in 10 young Americans are hooked on the app before their 17th birthday

“TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is Chinese,

and in China there is no such thing as a private company.”

-The Free Press

????

So You Wanna Chase (Existing) Demand?

Had a stunning conversation with a startup marketing team last week.

They are experiencing missed quarter.

After missed quarter.

They asked what I thought.

Here’s what I said.


You are making the same mistake made every day in Silicon Valley.

And by the time you realize the (tragic) error of your ways, it will (likely) be too late.

You (unconsciously) “think” you can product (feature) and sell (go-to-market) your way out.

(You can’t)

You’re stuck in the “better trap.”

Which in tough times leads to:

The dirty thirteen:

  1. Tough times hit ??
  2. Demand falls???
  3. Market/sell hard (catch demand) ????♀?
  4. Build more features ??????
  5. Customer Acquisition Cost???
  6. Market/sell harder (catch demand) ??
  7. Build more features ??????????????????
  8. Demand?falls further ??
  9. CAC???
  10. Market/sell harderer (catch demand) ??
  11. Build more features ????????????????????????????????????
  12. Repeat (until..)
  13. Run out of???


Making it worse.

This company is currently in a mega category battle for all the marbles.

One company in their category will earn 76% of the entire market.

Instead of setting the agenda (with a different category POV), they are chasing existing demand.


They believe so much that they can better their way out, they say the same shit on their website that everyone in their space says.

Their attempt at being different is claiming that they have more features at a lower price.

(That’s not different.)

(That’s better.)

They (unconsciously) believe so much in better, not only do they say the exact some shit on their website as their competition, they prominently feature comparative analyst reports on their website.

(insanity)

Instead of being different (forcing choice), they are proactively inviting comparison with their competitors… (who they actually name on their website!) ??

(no wonder they are in a race to the bottom)

Making it worse.

They don’t just think they can better product and better sell their way out of not (actually) being differentiated.

They know it.

Like fish know water is the whole world.

Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard reminds us:

“People play golf.

They don’t play boxing”.


You should know.

People play marketing.

They don’t play category design.

(76% stakes are too high)

If you want to drive revenue, get different.

A few category design axioms that will help you avoid The Better Trap:

  1. Force a choice, not a comparison
  2. She who owns the problem becomes the solution
  3. When you market my problem, I think you want to help me
  4. When you market your product, I think you want my money
  5. Dam (existing) demand at the category level by teaching customers, “you thought you wanted that, but what you really need is this”

  • “It’s not a girdle, it’s Shapeware”
  • “It’s not a taxi, it’s ridesharing”
  • “It’s not software, it’s cloud software”
  • “It’s not a popsicle, it’s a Sheeps Yogurt popsicle”
  • “It’s not AI, it’s Generative AI.”
  • “It’s not a database, it’s a Large Language Model”

The folly of chasing existing demand is as clear as the lack of hair on my head.

Yet almost all companies do it.

And the tougher things get, the more they do it.

And the worse they get.


So please.

Pretty please.

With whisky on top. ??

Don’t fall into the better trap.


Get different.

Market the problem.

And win.

?? ????

Shalom.

Stay legendary my friend,

Christopher Lochhead

?? ????

Copyright Category Pirates, LLC


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Public notifications & Legal Warnings

This newsletter has been shown to disappoint many.

Don’t not pour this hot, Different newsletter on your privates.

All Different newsletters contain nuts ??

Before acting on anything you just read please contact your lawyer, doctor, message therapist, marriage counselor, yoga instructor, bar tender, bud tender, spouse, category designer and mommy.


The creator of this Different newsletter:

-can’t find his dog

-does not possess a GED

-was thrown out of school at 18

-was likely hangin’ out with Mary Jane

-is considered radically incompetent (by many)

-possess multiple learning differences (aka superpowers)

-and The Economist once called him, “off-putting to some”


The left lane, is the passing lane.

For the love of God.

Get the fuck out of the passing lane.

?? ???? ??


“I need a little time off for bad behavior”

- Whiskey Myers

“Keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes upon the road”

- The Doors

American shoppers were expected to spend?$700 million?on pet costumes this Halloween, according to the National Retail Federation.?

$700 million.?

On pet costumes!

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What Loch Ness monster hunters found after biggest search in 50 years

Florida man pled guilty to using COVID loan for Lamborghini

All the news from OpenAI’s first developer conference

Did you know that the state of California voted to get rid of day-light savings time years ago?

Yet the state is not doing it.

It turns out.

Law makers in Sacramento are worried that the “extra hour” of sunlight will damage the crops.

??

Our real newsletter is called

Category Pirates ????

Ideas for teenage entrepreneurs:

-Help small business set up QR codes to accept Apple Pay.

-Help small business create Short-form AI-powered marketing videos with? https://pictory.ai


Germany’s Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck powerful words about Israel & Jews.


There are (random) strategically placed spelling, grammar and formatting mistakes in this newsletter.

If you think The Rock controls “Big Media” so he can brainwash people into subscribing to Disney Plus to force them to watch his horrible movies and buy tickets to Disney Land, 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 The Rock controls big media person, 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.

Please.

Pretty please.

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Florida man proposes using rings stolen from other girlfriend, authorities say

Most people would rather be right Vs. being successful.

Did you know starfish are body-less heads?


... this is the part of Different, that is like the very end of a movie...

….where some directors throw in silly crap-o-lla

(Did you know that Thomas Crapper - a British plumber popularized the modern toilet category? That's why you take a "take a crap". )

.....for their own entertainment purposes, because they assume by this point, people have left the theater...

...but for some reason you're still reading...

…and I'm still writing...


Everything is the way that it is, because somebody (like you) changed the way that

Categories make brands.

(No cola market. No Coke.)

(No Generative AI. No OpenAI)


OpenAI might be the most impressive software startup of all time.


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 Italian Brunello smooth read, with just the right level of AD/HD insanity…

you might get fired up about our real work:

books, paid/real newsletter, and/or podcasts.

Ever sit next to someone farting on a plane?

Or someone sneezing?

(without covering their mouth)

Gaza could Have Been Singapore. Hamas Turned It Into ISIS?


Big Foot Lives: Colorado tourists share video a Bigfoot

Human Sperm adjust their swimming style

Is this newsletter still going?

It seems very unprofessional to have all of this unprofessional stuff at the end.


Subscribe to Category Pirates (our real newsletter) here.

You might like this deep dive into “The Value of Your Value”

Podcasts are the only media for authentic conversation.

Have you seen the UK dating show where people get fully fucking naked and they show it ALL?

(It’s a kids show ??)

Contrary to the rumors, This Different Newsletter is not associated with Harvard Business School.

We are in no-way-shape-or-form funded or produced by Harvard.

This Different newsletter really ties the room together.


Hey, thanks for hanging out for the extra (silly) scooby snacks at the end...

….let's hang out again soon ????????

Hold Fast.

Published by Category Pirates.

Sponsored By Bad Tuna Industries.

Makers of Bad Tuna Butt Wipes?

Jeff Frick

Engagement in an AI Driven, Asynchronous World | Builder | Top Voice | Video Virtuoso | Content Curator | Host, Turn the Lens podcast and Work 20XX podcast

11 个月

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