How would you go about naming a new category?

I've done this a few ways across magnets like Crossbeam, 6sense, and Enable. You'll want to name the space you're headed, not where you are. At 6sense, we were making the shift from MarTech to "Revenue Intelligence." In this example you can see the shift from what it is to what it powers. Making the leap comes from R&D across analyst relations (briefings and inquiries), customer conversations, competitive intelligence, and stakeholder conversations. At Crossbeam, I worked across these channe ...Read More

Naming a new category is a big deal. Don't name it just by the scope and capabilities of your own solution - think bigger. A few things to help the naming process: 1. Talk to customers and try not to lead the witness. Understand what terms they use to describe the pain points and expected business value of the category. Make sure you talk to a broad set of customers that represent different industries, segments, and buying personas.  2. Research what other categories exist, how much traction the ...Read More

Category naming is more art than science. It involves a deep understanding of your solution space, the language of your existing and prospective customers, and the founder's intuition into the vision for the business.   Conventional wisdom suggests that a category name be no more than three words, and should capture the use case of your product as opposed to just features/benefits. Examples: Customer Relationship Management, Marketing Automation, Direct Care Administration.   I would highly reco ...Read More

Great question, and one that I’ve done some writing on (see link below).http://www.categorydev.com/category-branding/There are SEO, branding, PR/AR and many other implications to selecting a category name – so it’s important to get this right. I believe new categories and markets are created when a person / job title exists that is not being served in a meaningful way by an existing vendor. Categories that speak to that person, rather than the product, tend to better resonate. Analysts will sugg ...Read More