Category Creation

where do you start? what kind of classes? etc.

Or in other words, what is the education/definition effort vs. competitive differentiation effort in a known category

Hey guys, for those of you who have been in the position to name a new category, what steps did you take to ensure that you were on the right track?

Founding a new category vs moving into one you've created

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?

One of the main benefits of category creation preventing commoditization. However, if you really don't have much to differentiate yourself (i.e. - ARE commoditized), it seems that creating your own category kind of seems morally dubious. At what point can you say "ok, I can call this something else and be cool with it, because it's true."