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AMA: Dun & Bradstreet Former VP Global Marketing, Nipul Chokshi on Category Creation
September 8 @ 10:00AM PST
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Dun & Bradstreet Former VP Global Marketing, Nipul Chokshi on Category Creation
Top Questions
Nipul Chokshi
Fourth CMO • September 8
Depends - if you’re able to differentiate enough to be a #1 or #2 player in the market, stick with the current category. I would, however, start to amp up the thought leadership so that you can influence the category more going forward so you can start to play your own game. Not knowing more det......Read More
564 Views
1 request
How much effort is it to market products that create new categories? As in time and touches vs. existing products.
Or in other words, what is the education/definition effort vs. competitive differentiation effort in a known category
Nipul Chokshi
Fourth CMO • September 8
I’ve found that category creation is always more time and resource intensive than competing in an existing category. When creating a new category, you’re doing a lot of education about how companies can recognize the fact that they have a problem, why they need to prioritize (and budget for) solv......Read More
558 Views
1 request
How do you "defend" your category in a way that serves the buyer?
I have taken pitches from two companies that, although unique and cool in their own right, were at the end of the day either Marketing Automation or Outreach platforms. They were so allergic to even being considered among their competition in those fields that both told me they "didn't consider themselves as having competitors," when they obviously did. I respect their commitment to the uniqueness of their solution - but what's the push/pull between touting your unique offering vs actually selling against the realistic choices others have? When do you dismiss some metrics as unimportant vs actually get into the nitty gritty and compare?
Nipul Chokshi
Fourth CMO • September 8
You do need to walk a fine line between highlighting that fact that you’re unique while acknowledging the other choices customers have. There are a few considerations here - * As part of the category creation story, consider highlight some trends in the market (or shifts in user behavior) t......Read More
507 Views
1 request
Nipul Chokshi
Fourth CMO • September 8
Assuming the right answer for you is to indeed switch categories (and I’d really make sure to get this answer right), I’d recommend by laying out your point of view on the market problem, why it needs to be solved, and your positioning (ability to solve that problem in a unique way). I’d also be......Read More
741 Views
2 requests
Nipul Chokshi
Fourth CMO • September 8
In my experience, category creation requires two things at the start: * Point of View - which articulates your perspective on the problem(s) your target market is looking to solve [why is the problem worth solving, what are the key steps in solving the problem, what kind of tech solution......Read More
1179 Views
2 requests
Nipul Chokshi
Fourth CMO • September 8
I found that making the shift to “solutions” or “platform” requires becoming more business outcome focused in terms of your messaging. Rather than speak to individual user-level features/benefits (e.g. “the app launches 2x as fast”) you want to speak to the business impact that it delivers (e.g. ......Read More
1087 Views
2 requests
Nipul Chokshi
Fourth CMO • September 8
I don’t think it’s super critical for there to be a “new role” when creating a new category. When I was at Yammer, for example, we defined the “Enterprise Social Networking” category but made it a must have for various existing roles in an organization (VP HR, COO, VP Sales, etc.). What you’ll f......Read More
556 Views
1 request
Nipul Chokshi
Fourth CMO • September 8
For me, great messaging always starts with two things: * Point of View - which articulates your perspective on the problem(s) your target market is looking to solve [why is the problem worth solving, what are the key steps in solving the problem, what kind of tech solutions will help y......Read More
1508 Views
3 requests
Nipul Chokshi
Fourth CMO • September 8
* Several things come to mind here: Messaging is too generic: you’ve not done a good job of really identifying the audience and understanding what they care about in order to develop a specific message * Messaging doesn’t “provoke:” the objective of a message is to get your audi......Read More
687 Views
2 requests
Nipul Chokshi
Fourth CMO • September 8
One approach here is to re-define your market in such a way that you’re the leader of that market. That’s kind of what category creation if all about. Another approach here (again, leaning in to how you’re unique in the value you provide) is to emphasize how you’re enabling your customers to thi......Read More
659 Views
2 requests
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