The founders of a respected Silicon Valley advisory firm study legendary category-creating companies and reveal a groundbreaking discipline called category design.

Winning today isn’t about beating the competition at the old game. It’s about inventing a whole new game—defining a new market category, developing it, and dominating it over time. You can’t build a legendary company without building a legendary category. If you think that having the best product is all it takes to win, you’re going to lose.

In this farsighted, pioneering guide, the founders of Silicon Valley advisory firm Play Bigger rely on data analysis and interviews to understand the inner workings of “category kings”— companies such as Amazon, Salesforce, Uber, and IKEA—that give us new ways of living, thinking or doing business, often solving problems we didn’t know we had.

In Play Bigger, the authors assemble their findings to introduce the new discipline of category design. By applying category design, companies can create new demand where none existed, conditioning customers’ brains so they change their expectations and buying habits. While this discipline defines the tech industry, it applies to every kind of industry and even to personal careers.

Crossing the Chasm revolutionized how we think about new products in an existing market. The Innovator’s Dilemma taught us about disrupting an aging market. Now, Play Bigger is transforming business once again, showing us how to create the market itself.

Are you ready to master the most powerful business skill on the planet?

Over the past 20 years, Category Creation and Category Design has gone from being a little-known "positioning" secret from advertising legends like David Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, Al Ries, Jack Trout, Gary Halbert, and more, to now becoming the single most in-demand skill among business leaders, Fortune 500 executives, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, marketers, and even the next generation of digital creators. 

Why?

Because the business world is starting to wake up and realize branding comes second to category design.

No meaningful category? 

No meaningful company.

Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon, and Nicolas Cole—otherwise known as the Category Pirates—are the leaders of Category Creation and Category Design thinking in the digital age. And in The Category Design Toolkit, they walk readers through 15 absolutely mind-altering frameworks for how to see business, life, and the way people organize information into "categories" in their minds. Are you a B2B enterprise software company? Do you sell plastic widgets on Amazon? Maybe you're a small business owner, a biotech entrepreneur, or a YouTuber. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do. In order to have a meaningful impact on the world, in order to become known for a niche you own, and in order to dominate your industry in a way that separates you from any and all competition, you must create your own category.

Which means you must learn the skill of category design.

In this book, you will learn:

✓ How to objectively measure whether you and your company are creating a new category versus competing in someone else's (existing) category.

✓ How to prosecute The Magic Triangle: product design, company/business model design, and category design.

✓ How to find your Superconsumers, and leverage Superconsumer data to discover new potential categories.

✓ How to engineer a category breakthrough (even if you think your industry is "too saturated" or "all the good ideas are taken").

✓ The importance of being a missionary versus a mercenary—and why mercenary entrepreneurs and executives unknowingly compete over 24% of the market.

✓ The 8 category differentiation levers, and all the ways you can create a defensible moat around your business.

✓ How you can apply category creation & category design principles even as a small "e" entrepreneur or local business owner.

✓ How category design can also be applied to your career (and why you should aim to become known for a niche you own, not "build a personal brand).

✓ What happens if you neglect your category—and how to rage category violence industry leaders who make this mistake.

✓ How to write a legendary S-1 and raise hundreds of millions (even billions) of dollars in your company's IPO by making a case for the future growth of your category (which you created & designed).

✓ Why "Blue Ocean" isn't what you are looking for. And if you want to truly create a category of your own, you should execute a No Ocean Strategy.

This book is everything you need to know in order to learn, practice, and master the skill of category design.

To read this “mini-book,” as well as our entire archive of writing on Category Design, subscribe to Category Pirates here:

categorypirates.substack.com

How do you build a career with meaning?

Why do some writers and creators become known for a term, a phrase, or even an entire category, while others (talented as they might be) fade away?

Because the most memorable writers and creators become known for a niche they own. And, more importantly, they invented new language to help them show the world how and why they are different.

In typical Pirate fashion, this “mini-book” is the furthest thing you’ll find to conventional personal branding advice or “the ultimate guide to marketing yourself well.” Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon, and Nicolas Cole (otherwise known as Category Pirates), reveal why it’s not enough to just be “better” than the competition. You have to be different—radically different—and then you have to invent new language that solidifies your new ground. 

And they did it by inventing a new word that means exactly what they are preaching (how meta is that?).

Languaging: The strategic use of language to change thinking.

Languaging, according to Category Pirates, is what separates legendary writers, creators, and thinkers who make a dent in the universe from everyone else. It’s word-of-mouth marketing at its finest.

Want to stand out?

You can’t just “be” different. You have to Name & Claim your “different,” so other people can talk about it.

In this “mini-book” you will learn:

• How legendary writers use languaging: the strategic use of language to change thinking.
• Why it’s so important to “niche down,” and why the greatest writers & creators become known for a niche they own.
• What makes word-of-mouth marketing work, and how you can use Languaging to put “the right words in the right mouths.”
• How companies like Pfizer, Netflix, and McKinsey & Company all used Languaging to change the way customers perceived the value of their products and services.
• How Peter Drucker became one of the most prolific business writers in the world by using Languaging.
• How Malcolm Gladwell used Languaging to write one of the best-selling nonfiction books of our generation, The Tipping Point.
• And how Languaging + Category Design = a legendary, differentiated career.

Short, sweet, and to the point, this is niche marketing at its finest, and a playbook for how you can become known for a niche you own.

#1 Amazon Bestseller

A mediocre Category Designer will beat a world-class marketer every day of the week.

The reason is because all marketing sits within a context. "He or she who frames the problem owns the solution." Without this context—without a category—your marketing becomes nothing but screaming, shouting, and pitching customers with deals, discounts, and other short-term tactics in the hopes of landing a sale. But are you building your business? More importantly, are any of these efforts going to compound over time and establish you as the category leader?

Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon, and Nicolas Cole—otherwise known as the Category Pirates—are the authorities of Category Creation and Category Design in the digital world. Pirate Christopher is a 3x CMO, Pirate Eddie has driven over $8 billion in annual sales generated for companies, and Pirate Cole is a serial writing entrepreneur, and together they have put together A Marketer's Guide To Category Design.

In this book, you will learn:

✓ There is a new category of "human" in today's world: Native Digitals (people under the age of 35 years old). And if you are a Native Analog, then all of your marketing efforts need to sit in this new context called, "For Native Digitals, the digital world is the real world."

✓ Why so many marketers, entrepreneurs, executives, and even investors fall for The Big Brand Lie (falsly believing it's the company's "brand" customers care about).

✓ The "Better" Trap: why comparison marketing never works, and causes comparison-focused companies to fight over only 24% of the market.

✓ How to successfully execute a Dam The Demand strategy, stopping customers in the "old" world and moving them over to the new & different future you are creating.

✓ How to launch a Lightning Strike Strategy—and why "Peanut Butter Marketing" (spread out evenly throughout the year) is a guaranteed path to irrelevancy.

✓ What most marketers don't understand about Black Friday, and why discount campaigns and coupons are a bad way to grow your business.

✓ And finally, the difference between content marketing that captures people's attention and makes a difference versus content that goes nowhere.

If you are a marketer, or an entrepreneur/executive who wants to approach marketing through a category lens, this is the book for you.

To read this “mini-book,” as well as our entire archive of writing on Category Design, subscribe to Category Pirates here:

categorypirates.substack.com

Actual “thinking” is not reflexive. It’s reflective.

Almost all thinking is reflexive (having an unconscious “reflex” in response) versus “reflective” (taking a moment to consciously reflect on how the past may have created a preexisting mental model keeping you from considering a new and different future).

But reflexive thinking causes a scarcity of fresh thinking in the world.

In order to build the skill of coming up with fresh, new ideas, we have to first define what it means to “think.”

In this “mini-book” you will learn:

• How Sequoia Capital's mental awareness to ask a "thinking" question led to investing in Airbnb—and earning more than $12 billion.
• Strategic ways to move up and out of Obvious, incremental instruction and into exponential Non-Obvious thinking.
• Why languaging your thinking is the secret to being seen as a brilliant thinker and writer.
• The 5 archetypes of highly effective creators, writers, and entrepreneurs who create Non-Obvious ideas.
• Tips to become legendary by knowing the people you're creating for, what their expectations are, and why it matters to them.

Packed with incredibly valuable insights, this short “mini-book” shows how to spot, create, or unlock Non-Obvious problems and solutions to come up with the most valuable ideas.

To read this “mini-book,” as well as our entire archive of writing on Category Design, subscribe to Category Pirates here:

categorypirates.substack.com

There are 5 levels to becoming a legendary writer, creator, and “thought leader” in your field.

• Level 1: Consumption
  
• Level 2: Curation
• Level 3: Obvious Connection
• Level 4: Non-Obvious Connection
  
• Level 5: Category Creation
  

Unfortunately, most people who aspire to be a “thought leader” (by any definition of the term) struggle to make it past Levels 2 or 3 on The Content Pyramid. They mistake passionately sharing someone else’s ideas, or stating a “Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious,” for thought leadership.

Again, while this might be a terrific strategy for getting short-term likes, followers, and approval, there is a giant difference between Gary Vee and Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Because in order to be a “thought leader,” you must be willing to LEAD WITH YOUR THOUGHTS.

In this “mini-book” you will learn:

• How legendary writers, creators, entrepreneurs, executives, and industry thought leaders measure success and understand Category Design.
  
• Why so many aspiring thought leaders don't actually “lead thoughts” in a different direction.
• The number one mistake aspiring writers and creators make when trying to be thought leaders.
• Why people consume empty intellectual calories and how to develop enriching content by creating your own category and becoming known for a niche you own.
• Tips to apply the five levels of the Content Pyramid to become a legendary writer, creator, and “thought leader” in your field.
  

Short, sweet, and jam-packed with incredibly valuable insights, this “mini-book” shares unique insight into what it takes to become a thought leader and successfully build a unique and differentiated category.

To read this “mini-book,” as well as our entire archive of writing on Category Design, subscribe to Category Pirates here:

categorypirates.substack.com

We are in a recession.

(Not officially, but it is not looking good.)

Stocks are down. Startup valuations have plummeted. Bitcoin and Ethereum have lost more than 50% of their total value since their respective highs back in November 2021.

But where there is chaos, there is opportunity.

Google and Amazon both came out of the dot-com bubble in the 90s. And Uber, Spotify, Airbnb, Square, and dozens of other next-gen technology companies were founded between 2006 and 2009, right in the middle of the greatest financial crisis to ever threaten America.

Recessions are pressure-cookers that rid the system of businesses failing to live up to the value they are promising society.

This is why savvy leaders market the category in downturns.

In this “mini-book” you will learn:

• Why the Company Downturn Cycle Of Doom causes companies to fight for demand, rather than create demand.
  
• How to become the most in-demand product, service, or business by offering what is suddenly urgent, important, and most useful in the world.
• The five steps of the Money-Making Recession Strategy to elevate the value of what you do at the level category level.
• Which of your consumers as a small business or startup are the most recession-proof part of the economy.
• What Microsoft and Apple can teach about building Intellectual Capital that creates incredible opportunities and abundance for all.
  

Short, sweet, and jam-packed with incredibly valuable insights, this “mini-book” explains how to leverage Category Design to use your time, energy, and resources to create net-new demand by solving tomorrow’s problems, today.

To read this “mini-book,” as well as our entire archive of writing on Category Design, subscribe to Category Pirates here: 

categorypirates.substack.com

Personal branding is a lie.

And being known for the sake of being known is not the goal.

Instead, today’s creators, entrepreneurs, digital writers, marketers, and even executives and investors should aim to become known for a niche they own—to create a category of expertise built on their reputation to deliver legendary results. Unfortunately, this is not the way most people think about differentiating themselves today. Instead, much of the business world is consumed in a game of “more content, more outrageous.” Personal branding is all about capturing attention for attention’s sake—and the idea is that once you have people’s attention, once you have hundreds of thousands of followers, then you can figure out what to do with all that attention (monetize it in some way). But this is misleading thinking, and has unknowingly educated an entire generation of entrepreneurs to use gimmicks to rack up views on social media opposed to building differentiated assets and publish valuable content that allows them to become known for a niche they own.

In this “mini-book” you will learn:

• How an article in the late 1990s called “A Brand Called You” set off an entire movement of individuals becoming infatuated with the idea of personal branding.
• A brief history of how social media turned everyday actions into “content,” and how personal branding gurus like Gary Vaynerchuk preached the importance of “documenting everything.”
• The “Me” Disease, and why the next generation (86% of young Americans) want to be influencers when they grow up.
• And the big personal branding lie: why people are not brands, and just like The Big Brand Lie, thinking people care about “you” is one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a creator.

Short, sweet, and jam-packed with incredibly valuable insights, this “mini-book” is a Rally Cry for creators to unhook their mindset from caring about building a “personal brand,” and instead focusing on investing in their personal category design.

To read this “mini-book,” as well as our entire archive of writing on Category Design, subscribe to Category Pirates here: 

categorypirates.substack.com

The content marketing category is a $400 billion industry.

And it’s estimated that by 2024, the content marketing industry will grow by another $270 billion, bringing the grand total to nearly $700 billion. But how much of the content being created (especially by enterprise companies and B2C companies) is actually worth reading? The truth is, most of it isn't. Which means the content marketing industry has unknowingly turned itself into a Content Marketing Industrial Complex—where "more content" as a strategy continues to yield results with exponentially diminishing returns.

The Category Pirates—Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon, and Nicolas Cole—call this Content-Free Marketing: The Art Of Saying Nothing, Everywhere. And explain why marketers like Gary Vaynerchuk, Grant Cardone, Tai Lopez, and other "personal branding experts" who champion Content-Free Marketing strategies have misinformed an entire education of marketers, entrepreneurs, executives, and even investors.

In this “mini-book” you will learn:

• Why "free" content marketing is never really free (and how "more content" as a strategy actually can hurt your chances of winning over customers).
• Obvious Lie Marketing, and how "jab, jab, jab, right hook" social media marketing approaches have unknowingly trained marketers to believe "pretending" to care is a "best practice."
• The 3 Big Content Marketing Lies—and why your personal story and your company's story are not what matter to customers.
• Why so few entrepreneurs, executives, and marketers ever truly become industry thought leaders (and what holds them back from writing and creating content that truly moves the world).
• And more.

Short, sweet, and jam-packed with incredibly valuable insights, this “mini-book” is a rally cry for the marketing world to sober up and stop mindlessly puking out "more content"—and instead think hard about how to present new and different thinking.

To read this “mini-book,” as well as our entire archive of writing on Category Design, subscribe to Category Pirates here: 

categorypirates.substack.com

Business media “platforms” and social media platforms have a problem.

The way content gets created, distributed, and monetized today is being radically transformed—and most people haven’t noticed yet. And up until now, creators have not been paid (fairly) for their work. 

But all that is changing.

Today, there are dozens of tools creators—ranging from writers to educators, artists, musicians, and beyond—can use to turn themselves and the content they create into independent businesses. As a result, the way creators think about, prioritize, use, and remain loyal to media and social platforms is changing. 

And the legacy platforms are teetering. 

In this “mini-book” you will learn:

• How legacy media platforms have long taken advantage of digital creators, and how their neglect of the category has led to tremendous category violence.
• How Patreon, Cameo, Gumroad, Mighty Networks, Shopify, Substack, OnlyFans, and many more are changing the way creators make money—fostering direct relationships with customers and cutting out the middleman. 
• Why business media (like Inc Magazine, Forbes, Fortune, etc.) are in trouble, and how their predatory business model has them all in a race to the bottom.
• And how, as a creator, you can be at the forefront of this new Direct To Creator movement to achieve independence and financial freedom for yourself, doing what you love.

Short, sweet, and jam-packed with incredibly valuable insights, this “mini-book” is the ultimate guide for creators who want to understand how to make the most of the changing media landscape.