How Do You Know if Your Category Definition Is Working?

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How do you know, after you've done this work, if what you're doing is working? Look at the press articles that come out when you first announce. If all those touch points reinforce the same message, it should feel boring to you. The product category you choose to play in really is the company's. And then if you outgrow it overtime, as nest did or as square did, you evolve. But it shouldn't feel like a pivot.

Today’s episode is with Arielle Jackson. For the past 7 years, she’s helped hundreds of companies build their positioning and brands from the ground up, both as our Marketing Expert in Residence here at First Round and in her own consulting work.

Before helping early-stage startups, Arielle started her career in Product Marketing at Google, where she helped launch and grow Google Books and AdWords before leading marketing for Gmail. She then joined Square, where she led the launch of the Square Stand. She then headed up marketing & communications at Cover, an Android app that was acquired by Twitter.

Given that she’s worked with so many companies, Arielle is a pro at spotting common patterns when it comes to early marketing, so today we spend our time digging into the challenges and missteps she’s seen so many founders run into.

From category creation and company purpose, to messaging, brand personality and launch strategy, Arielle details both common pitfalls to avoid and the exercises and frameworks that she shares with founders in her consulting work.

Whether it’s about not falling into the trap of focusing too much on other startup competitors, relying on emotional instead of functional benefits, or coming with unrealistic PR expectations, Arielle has tons of examples to bring these concepts to life.

If you are looking to learn more, Arielle has turned the brand strategy work she does at First Round into a cohort-based course, powered by Maven. The course runs in February and applications close on Jan 28th – find out more and apply here.

Additionally, here are the resources we talked about in the episode

Arielle’s First Round Review articles:

- Positioning Your Startup is Vital — Here’s How to Nail It

- Three Moves Every Startup Founder Must Make to Build a Brand That Matters

- So You Think You’re Ready to Hire a Marketer? Read This First.

The books on the subject that Arielle recommends:

- Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

- Play Bigger: How Rebels and Innovators Create New Categories and Dominate Markets

- Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life

- Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

You can follow Arielle on Twitter at @hiiamArielle. You can email us questions directly at review@firstround.com or follow us on Twitter @firstround and @brettberson.