E116 | Creating A Category With The Godfather of Category, Christopher Lochhead

If you want a point of difference with your company, if you want to be more Apple than Blackberry, then don’t miss this week’s episode of The Melting Pot with the Godfather of Category Design, Christopher Lochhead. 

He self-describes as a dyslexic paperboy who got thrown out of school at 18 and with few other options he started a company. Now, Christopher is a #1 Apple Business Podcaster and #1 Amazon Marketing author. He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups, is a venture capital limited partner and a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO (Vantive, Scient, Mercury Interactive), and entrepreneur.

“For me, entrepreneurship, like many entrepreneurs, is not necessarily a way up in the world, it's a way out of a life of struggle.”

Today, Christopher hosts the award-winning dialogue podcast “Follow Your Different” and award-winning “Lochhead on Marketing” podcast and is co-author of two international bestsellers: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

Christopher is a firm believer that categories make brands, rather than brands make categories. In this incredibly insightful (and slightly longer than normal) episode, he talks about what might have happened if Steve Jobs had followed a traditional marketing playbook and why Google Plus was a failure. Plus, he discusses the importance of dialogue and what happened when Dan Alexander, the guy who covers President Trump's business dealings, came on his podcast. 

On today’s podcast:

• Why he started the podcast
• Creating a category with Play Bigger
• How the legends do marketing
• How Steve Jobs created a new category
• Creating the sushi burrito
• Interviewing Dan Alexander

Links:

• Podcast - Follow Your Different
• Book - Play Bigger
• Book - Niche Down