Create A New B2B Category, Then Fire Marketing?

Who's going to execute the go-to-market plan?

The idea of category creation has gone further off the rails. There are B2B companies “creating” new categories, only to reduce the Marketing team weeks later.

In 2023, I've heard stories of CEOs demanding that Marketing create a category, but weeks later the Marketing team and budget were shrunk down. Who's going to execute the GTM Plan (if there is one)? A technical founder? The Partnerships guy who joined three weeks ago from an enterprise company who's used to having endless resources?

Is category creation the fault of VCs who want to see new categories sprout up? 🪴 Maybe. Wherever the fault lies, this is a serious problem for both B2B vendors and their customers. 👇

Let’s Pretend

Pretend for a moment that a B2B marketing team executes a flawless GTM Plan to bring a new category to market. When their team is cut, this category won’t make a dent in the market, analysts won’t write about it, and this is troubling from a reputation standpoint—I can’t take off my PR hat sometimes, forgive me.

What happens to customers who don't see more resources on the vendor's site? What happens when the trade show booth's background shows words nobody in the market can attach meaning to? What happens in the minds of reporters and analysts who are pitched about this new category and then never hear from the company or its temporary PR team again?

This is really happening.

Could we skip creating categories and instead:

• Review the wasted ad spend?

• Put our customer stories out there for prospects to see?

• Clear up homepage messaging?

• Identify real target audiences?

• Tell VCs a new category isn't the right path?

How is this category creation obsession going to end?