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 companies positioned inside a market that already existed, and creating demand for a word nobody is searching for is a multi year, capital heavy job. Start in the category your buyer already budgets for, win a specific slice of it, then redraw the lines once you have money and momentum. Category creation is a thing you earn, not a thing you announce.
Go deeper
5 resources, 1 India-specific, 5 link-checked.
📄 Article
✓ Link checkedFreeBeginner
The clearest short explanation of why market category is one of five interdependent positioning pieces, with a real repositioning story attached. It is also where Dunford makes the case that most companies should not invent a category.
Deals with the four places positioning work actually stalls, including teams that cannot agree on their competitive alternatives. Useful once you have tried positioning and it went nowhere.
The book that gave the discipline its vocabulary (category king, lightning strike, point of view). Read it as the ambitious end of the spectrum, not as a default plan.
The founder's own account of entering an existing category (help desk) against Zendesk rather than inventing a new one, and winning on price and simplicity for SMBs. The clearest India example of segment choice beating category invention.
The CEO and CMO who built the customer success category are honest here about how many years and how much money it took, which is the strongest argument for starting inside a market your buyer already budgets for. Watch this before you decide you are a new category.
