Category
A category is the group of things that solve similar struggles in a similar way. It is the most underused positioning lever. You cannot create demand from thin air. Pick a category where demand already exists and your segment already understands what you do.
What most people mean
“The market you compete in.” Usually picked by default: whatever category already exists on G2, Gartner, or the industry trade publication. SaaS companies inherit their category from their first product description. Agencies pick whatever their founders used to do at their last job.
The bolder version: “category creation.” The 1% of companies that actually create categories get all the attention. Everyone else reads Play Bigger and tries to invent a category that nobody asked for.
Where the definition breaks
I spent 18 months learning this lesson the hard way. Back in 2015, I saved up $20,000 to start my own business in Dublin. I was going to help businesses improve their websites so they sold more. Conversion rate optimisation, or CRO.
It felt like pedalling a bicycle uphill with a baguette for a wheel. After 18 months, I found myself mentally drained, spending most of my time glued to my laptop, endlessly checking email and Twitter. I f*cking hated the very job I had created for myself.
It never occurred to me that, maybe, just maybe, there were few others doing this because conversion rate optimisation services were not in demand in Dublin. There was a market force completely out of my control: category demand.
You can’t create demand. As Eugene Schwartz put it: “You can’t create demand for anything because demand is too large for you to create. The demand has to be out there.” Just like you can’t make a tornado with a $35 desk fan you bought after coming across a post on Instagram, you can’t create demand. This is one of the hard lessons the bro marketers don’t tell you.
How we define it at STFO
A category is the group of things that solve similar struggles in a similar way. It helps people quickly understand what something is. There’s no official rulebook for categories. They’re fluid and constantly evolving based on how people use them.
Your goal is to position in a category that’s in demand and that your segment both understands and wants. Three reasons:
- Make it easy to compare. We don’t like making decisions from scratch because it’s tiring.
- Stick to what people already know. People don’t like taking risks or trying things they don’t know.
- Provide mental relief. Our brains hate chaos.
When the category doesn’t quite fit, use the Trojan Horse method: present what you do in a way that aligns with your segment’s current understanding. It’s better to pick a category that is in demand and understood with an 80 percent match to what you do than create something that feels like a 100 percent match that no one understands or wants.
A crowded market full of competitors is a good thing. It means there’s real demand, a hunger for what’s being offered. Zero competition might mean zero demand.
What it is NOT
- Not a label you invent in a brainstorm (categories are defined by how people already buy)
- Not something you “create” unless you have years and millions to spend educating a market
- Not permanent (categories evolve, and you can reframe which one you belong to)
- Not the same as your product description
- Not something to fear competition in (competition means demand exists)
"Don't try to sell snails with garlic-herb butter to Irish tourists who just want lasagna."
From Chapter 7 of Stand The F*ck Out (2024) by Louis Grenier.
Related terms
Go deeper
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Hear it discussed
The Stand The F*ck Out framework, introduced by Louis Grenier in 2024, consists of four stages: insight foraging, unique positioning, distinctive brand, and continuous reach.
