SaaS, fintech, foundations, new formats — how to name a category when the market can't. This article is written for founders, CMOs, and operators who need a board-level answer — what is broken, why it is happening, and what to change next.
The strategic problem
The hardest positioning problem in Indian marketing is being genuinely new. If your product fits into a category the market already understands, positioning is a matter of differentiation. If your product creates a new category — a new class of software, a new financial instrument, a new way to buy something — positioning is a matter of comprehension.
The instinct is to describe the new thing in terms of the closest familiar thing: 'we are Uber for X', 'we are Notion for Y'. This works for the first hundred customers and traps you forever after. You become the second-tier version of the thing you compared yourself to.
The operating choice
The alternative is to name the category. Not to invent a slogan, but to give the new thing a specific noun — 'category design' as a discipline, 'headless CMS' as a product class, 'buy-now-pay-later' as a payment instrument. Once the market has a noun, it can shop for the noun.
Naming a category takes three things: a specific customer job the new category solves, a name short and clear enough that a customer can Google it, and a willingness to be the loudest voice defending the name for two to three years. Most founders quit before year two.
The better model
Category creation is not the fastest way to build a business, but for genuinely new products it is often the only durable way. The alternative is to be described by whoever describes you first — and they usually describe you as a feature of a competitor.
"You become the second-tier version of the thing you compared yourself to."
Turn this article into a working growth decision.
Bring us your current numbers, website, and agency reports. We'll show you what is signal, what is theatre, and what deserves budget next.
Book an honest audit →