May 2023

A category’s “lightning strike” is a critically important event and perhaps the single biggest investment you’ll make in launching your category. But you can’t stop there. Marketers universally agree that someone has to hear a message multiple times before it takes hold and impacts their decision making. Therefore to make sure that your audience truly recognizes the danger from changes in the world and embraces your new category as the solution that can position them for ongoing success, you need to continue telling your compelling story in many different ways. By being the main ones talking about this wonderful new solution to emerging problems you also establish your company as the “Category King”. When people think of the category, you want them to think of your company. Optimally your company becomes a synonym or even a verb for the category (think Xerox, Google, or Uber).

Playing off the “grand entrance” as a “lightning strike”, what you need to create is an ongoing series of “thunder claps” that together I refer to as “rolling thunder.” These announcements amplify the differentness of your category, make the benefits of switching to the category even more powerful, and expand the scope of the category. Especially early on having a well-defined rhythm to your thunder claps (e.g. monthly, quarterly, or bi-annually) forces a discipline on the entire organization that ensures that the thunder continues to roll. 

Over time the nature of your communications will change. Early on the thunder will keep your audience’s attention, increase the value your category delivers, and continue to convince early skeptics that they need a change from how things have always been done. You are continuing to educate and convince them that your different approach is necessary. As awareness of the category grows and people start to accept your claims, other companies will enter the category. Your established leadership will give you a clear advantage, but your “thunder claps” will begin to shift the focus from the category to your company — demonstrating your differentiation and leadership within the category.

In the article linked below I describe this process, provide examples of what thunder claps can be, and provide guiding principles for making them impactful.

Read the full article here.

We’ve all seen movies or read books where the people are under some kind of oppression and “the hero” emerges from nowhere to lead the rebellion which overcomes evil and establishes a new and glorious future. At some point in these stories, the hero makes his grand entrance, rallying the troops and bringing cheers of delight from the oppressed people (and sometimes even the audience in the theater). Often this comes at the key turning point in the battle. The battle isn’t yet won, but everyone knows a new era has arrived. 

Your category similarly needs to make a grand entrance that gives the “oppressed people” you serve hope and that marks a new era in the industry. In their book Play Bigger Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, and Kevin Maney call this the category’s “lightning strike”. Making your “lightning strike” truly a grand entrance has a tremendous impact on the success of your category building efforts. The saying goes that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. The introduction of your category to the world will strongly determine how closely your market will pay attention to you and your category going forward.

So, how do you make a proper grand entrance?

In the article linked below I describe the four keys to making an impactful entry:

1. The Right Timing
2. The Credibility to Instill Confidence
3. The Right Audience
4. A Dramatic Unveiling

Read the full article here to learn more about each of these four keys.

Over the past several months, I’ve written extensively about how categories help buyers (consumers and business decision makers) make sense of an increasingly complicated marketplace. When we, as buyers, see something new we try to place it in a category already established in our head so that we can figure out whether or not we have any interest in it.

So, what do you do when your product doesn’t really fit in any existing category? You must create a new category. This is hard; it can be expensive; and it requires a commitment to invest for years in establishing the category and your company’s leadership in the category. But the payoffs can be significant. 

A couple of months ago I described how to go about defining the category. Over the coming weeks, starting with the article linked below, I will describe how to establish and own the category. 

Establishing the category culminates in the official launch of the category, often with some kind of launch event. This is sometimes called the “lightning strike” that suddenly, brilliantly, and impactfully makes the world aware of the new category. 

Owning the category builds off of that category launch and continues for many years. I like to think of this phase as a “rolling thunder” campaign where “thunder claps” continue to repeat the story behind the original “lightning strike.” Each of these “thunder claps” remind the world that there is a new category, further embedding it in their minds, and even extend it in new and exciting ways. Most importantly, by investing in this “rolling thunder” campaign your company firmly establishes its position as the creator, leader, and owner of the category. When people think of the category, they think of your company first.

These two phases are very complementary and both are structured around a compelling story that completely changes how potential customers think. Before hearing the compelling story they did things the old way using the old categories of products. After hearing the compelling story their eyes are opened to how the world has so clearly changed and they now need to operate differently using a new category of products.

Read the full article here.

In 2012 T-Mobile USA was the distant 4th place player in the U.S. wireless market and was bleeding subscribers and revenue. Today the company is the fastest growing in the industry and has moved into 2nd place, closing quickly on Verizon. The company’s market cap has increased from around $3B at the beginning of 2012 to about $180B at the beginning of 2023. What changed?

A lot of things changed at T-Mobile starting in 2012, but taken as a whole, those changes tell the story of a category creator. In the article linked below I break the story down into five important steps:

1. Understand how the world is changing.
2. Identify the potential compelling story.
3. Define the category.
4. Launch the category.
5. Sustain category momentum and leadership.

In 2012, T-Mobile wasn’t the only wireless carrier struggling to pull out of a steep dive. At the time I was vice president of corporate strategy at Sprint which was the #3 player in the market. We similarly were falling farther and farther behind Verizon and AT&T. Our stock price had taken a similar beating. At Sprint we did some things right, but we failed to follow the category-creator roadmap, and as a result, after I left the company, I watched T-Mobile catch and pass Sprint and eventually acquire my former employer. In this article as we move through the steps that T-Mobile took, in the article I point out where Sprint made right steps, stumbled, or skipped steps altogether.

Read the full story here.