How the best do it

How do the best teams pick the category name, and what separates a name that sticks?

The short answer

A name that sticks is sized to the buyer you want and built from words that buyer already uses, not from words you invented. Revenue intelligence worked because revenue leaders care about revenue, inbound marketing worked because it defined itself against outbound in one breath, and lakehouse worked because it fused two things engineers already understood. Test it the boring way: say it in twenty discovery calls, see who repeats it back unprompted a week later, and see who immediately asks the budget question. Avoid names that need a paragraph of explanation, names that only make sense after a demo, and names your competitor could adopt tomorrow with no loss.

Go deeper, your way

4 hand-picked resources, 4 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.

The same ground, at another level

How category design reads from a different seat.

What does category actually mean in go-to-market, and why does everyone keep telling me to pick one? A category is the mental shelf a buyer puts you on before they judge anything else about you. The moment someone hears what you do, they reach for ... Breaking into GTM 3 resources → How do I test whether a category name lands before we commit the whole website to it? Put the words in front of real buyers before you put them in a headline. Run the line past twenty people who match your ICP and ask them what they ... Doing the work 4 resources → When is category creation the right call for us, and when is it just an excuse? It is right when your buyer feels a real pain that no existing category addresses, and when the existing frame is actively making senior people ign... Leading a GTM team 4 resources →

Terms in this answer

Inbound Marketing

People also ask

What does category actually mean in go-to-market, and why does everyone keep telling me to pick one? A category is the mental shelf a buyer puts you on before they judge anything else about you. The moment someone hears what you do, they reach for ... Breaking into GTM 3 resources → Should we create a new category or just say we are a better version of something that already exists? For almost everyone at the start, the answer is the existing category. April Dunford's own count is that around 90 percent of recently public tech ... Breaking into GTM 4 resources → How do I write the one line that says what category we are in? Write it as a comparison, not a description. The formula that works is simple: who it is for, what kind of thing it is, and why it beats the altern... Breaking into GTM 5 resources → Buyers keep comparing us to a big incumbent. How do I even respond in a first call? Do not dodge it and do not claim you beat them everywhere, because the buyer knows you do not and you lose credibility instantly. Name the incumben... Breaking into GTM 3 resources → How do I test whether a category name lands before we commit the whole website to it? Put the words in front of real buyers before you put them in a headline. Run the line past twenty people who match your ICP and ask them what they ... Doing the work 4 resources → We named the problem instead of the product. Is that a positioning mistake? It is usually the right instinct, badly executed. Naming the problem is what makes a category feel inevitable, because the buyer recognises the pai... Doing the work 4 resources →

Also in Starting Up

The same ground, over in Brand, web & content, our Starting Up track.

How do I come up with a good name for my startup? Pick a name you can spell out loud once and have someone type correctly. Short, easy to say, and not a clever misspelling beats 'meaningful but con... 3 resources → What should actually go on my startup's landing page? Above the fold: a clear headline saying what you do, a subheadline saying how, a visual of the product, social proof, and one call-to-action. Below... 2 resources →

Also in D2C

The same ground, over in Find your idea & build the brand, our D2C track.

Should my brand name be a made-up word, or should it actually describe what I sell? Made-up or arbitrary names (Kodak, Apple-for-computers) are the strongest legally and scale best across categories later, but they need real market... 3 resources → Who counts as my competitor - only brands selling the exact same product, or more than that? Track three tiers: direct competitors (same product, same customer), indirect competitors (different product solving the same customer need - a mea... 3 resources →
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