“The reason it's a trap is that it's an argument you have to constantly have. You're not implanting yourself in people's minds as the go-to. They're comparing you to other agencies, and you have to constantly make that argument. There are millions of companies that ride on that better argument and make a perfectly good business and living, but you're not going to be a breakout, enduring success by constantly making that argument.”
sputnikintelligence.com
Asked why trying to be 'better' than competitors isn't enough, the category-design author says the problem is you must keep re-winning the comparison. Plenty of firms live fine on it, he allows, but it won't make a lasting winner.
…part of. And it became part of the conversation and especially in the tech startup circles, but more widely than that too, and led to me starting a consulting business called Category Design Advisors that been doing for 10, 11 years now and helping companies do this thing we called category design.
…this idea of when a company wants to be better, that that's sort of a trap that they fall into. Can you talk a little bit about how better isn't enough and what the trap is and what does that look like from the outside if someone's looking at a better company and what we're missing in that pursuit?
Well, yeah, it's a good question because so many companies pitch themselves as, you know, we're better, right? We're either lower price or we've got a few more features. And if you're an agency, you know, we can have some better writers or whatever. But the reason it's a trap is because it's an argument you have to constantly have, right? You're not implanting yourself in people's minds as like, this is the go-to. They're comparing you to other agencies and saying, okay, well, you know, and you have to constantly make that argument. And look, I mean, there are thousands, millions probably of companies out there that ride on that better argument and make a perfectly good business and living, but you're not going to be a breakout, like enduring success by constantly making that argument.
Well, and in our space, you know, better really implies I have smarter, better people because we don't have a lot of other things that, you know, we have frameworks, we have beliefs, but it really is based on our people. So to me, every time when you say better, every time you have a staff change…
Well, and first of all, I would say that we can get to the topic of AI and all of that. I don't think it's changed the way we look at the market or the way we look at strategy. And so what I would tell your audience is that the way to be enduring and different is to start with what start with the…
So you've walked a lot of clients in your consulting business through this formula. Can you share with us an example of how it played out so people can sort of see the sort of the output of the context, what's missing, and innovation parts so they see how they fit together?