URL: /b2b/category-creation-b2b-saas Vertical: B2B Tech & SaaS Author: Ronn Torossian
Inbound marketing. Conversational marketing. Revenue intelligence. Product-led growth. The B2B SaaS playbook for the last fifteen years has been straightforward: don't compete inside an existing category — invent a new one and own it. The playbook still works. The mechanics have changed.
A category name that surfaces consistently inside ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini compounds across downstream surfaces. A category name that fails to register inside those systems often struggles to gain traction — regardless of how strong the underlying POV is.
The Status of Category Creation in 2026
Category creation, as defined by Play Bigger — the 2016 book that named the discipline — requires three things: a Point of View on a problem, a Category Name that captures that POV, and a Company Story that positions the firm as the obvious answer. HubSpot did it with inbound marketing. Drift did it with conversational marketing. Gong did it with revenue intelligence. Each built a billion-dollar+ outcome on category ownership.
Many other category attempts have failed quietly — particularly when the category language mapped poorly to existing purchasing behavior, when no analyst firm picked up the framing, or when a competitor moved faster on the language. Category creation has always been high-leverage and high-failure.
The discipline remains relevant. What's changed is where the category gets recognized — and how fast.
What's Changed — The New Top of Funnel
Category creation used to require three audiences: analysts (to write the category into Magic Quadrants and Waves), press (to validate the language), and customers (to adopt the framing). A fourth audience now sits between them: AI discovery surfaces — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews.
In practice, analysts increasingly research adjacent categories partly through their own AI tools. Press picks up category language partly through what's surfacing in AI-mediated coverage. Customers absorb categories partly through conversational search. The discovery surface isn't downstream of the other three — it runs in parallel and increasingly shapes them.
How Major Players Are Doing It
Recent category creation moves include Glean defining Work AI, Harvey anchoring Legal AI, Decagon claiming the AI Customer Service Agents segment, Sierra in conversational AI agent platforms, and Vanta and Drata formalizing Trust Management as a procurement category.
Each invested in three coordinated motions: founder-led category narration, analyst engagement to write the category into research, and visibility work to ensure the category name surfaces inside AI discovery surfaces when buyers research adjacent problems. Not all of these will succeed at the same level — the pattern observable in winners is consistent, but the underlying success rate of category attempts remains modest.
The New Playbook
Name the category before naming the product. The category name needs to capture the problem and the solution shape — not the brand. Inbound marketing works because anyone can do it; HubSpot marketing doesn't.
Anchor the category in a POV. The category exists because the prior approach is breaking down. The POV should be defensible, contrarian, and quotable.
Get analyst language locked. Brief Gartner, Forrester, IDC, and category-specific firms on the category name and POV early. Once a major firm uses the language in a research note, downstream adoption tends to follow.
Work the comparison query. Test "best [category name] tools" and "[your brand] vs alternatives" across the major AI discovery surfaces on a regular cadence. Build the citation infrastructure to improve the likelihood that the brand surfaces.
Schema the category itself. On owned media, publish a definitional page for the category with DefinedTerm and Article schema. Make it the canonical source.
Founder-led narration. The category benefits from a face. The founder talks about the category at conferences, on podcasts, in bylines — not the product.
Customer co-narration. Customers who use the category name in their own content and conferences extend the citation footprint meaningfully.
Measurement
- Share of voice on the category name across press
- Analyst citations of the category name
- Organic search volume for the category name
- Citation share for "best [category name]" queries across AI assistants
- Brand-name association rate inside generative search — when someone asks about the category, is your brand named?
Common Mistakes
Naming a feature, not a category. "AI-powered analytics" isn't a category. Revenue intelligence is.
Inventing a category that's actually a subcategory of an existing well-known one. Buyers tend to reject the framing.
Building the category without analyst engagement. Without analyst validation, the category often stays a marketing slogan.
Ignoring AI visibility until the category is already established. By then a competitor has often shaped the synthesis.
Letting a competitor co-opt the category name through faster execution. First mover into the language doesn't always win — the most consistent mover often does.
The Convergence Ahead
Category creation has become a multi-disciplinary motion. The category architect, the AR lead, the GEO lead, and the founder benefit from operating off one playbook. Companies that coordinate category creation across PR, analyst relations, content, and GEO appear better positioned to sustain category visibility over time than companies that treat category creation as a brand exercise alone.
Related Coverage: [B2B Tech & SaaS](/b2b) · [GEO](/geo) · [Earned Media](/earned-media) · [Executive & Founder Branding](/executive-founder-branding)
Glossary: [Category Creation](/glossary/category-creation) · [Analyst Relations](/glossary/analyst-relations) · [Comparison Query](/glossary/comparison-query) · [Citation Share](/glossary/citation-share) · [Founder Branding](/glossary/founder-branding)
Topics: Category creation · B2B SaaS · Play Bigger · HubSpot · Drift · Gong · Glean · Harvey · Vanta · Drata · GEO · Analyst relations
