David and Elias started Drift (live chat SaaS) in 2014 after leaving HubSpot as CPO and CTO respectively.
They have since built a product that is #1 in its category and serves 150,000 businesses.
How?
This posts explains…
- Charles Lindberg (flying the Atlantic)
- Hertz (rental cars)
- Coca-Cola (fizzy drink)
- Heineken (US imported beer)
- Miller Light (the US imported light beer)
- Harvard (US college)
- Time (magazine)
- Playboy (magazine)
- Jeep (4 wheel drive vehicles)
- IBM (mainframe computers)
- Chrysler (minivan)
- Hewlett Packard (laser printer)
- Tide (laundry detergent)
- Advil (Ibuprofen)
- Charles Schwab (discount brokerage)
- George Washington (US president)
- Gatorade (US sports drink)
What do all of the above have in common?
They were first into their market… which has helped them develop a market and mindshare leading position:
People are more likely to remember the first person/brand/business in a category.
One more question… if Charles Lindberg was the first person to fly over the Atlantic ocean… why do most people know the third?
Amelia Mary Earhart.
Because she was the first woman to fly the Atlantic.
David Cancel and David Gerhardt (Drift’s CMO) had read the book Positioning by Al Ries & Jack Trout… they knew they had a problem:
Live chat was already a thing in 2014.
They could enter into this category but like Buzz Aldrin (the second person on the moon), would likely be forgotten.
They had a stroke of genius…
And created a new category:
And by default… they become #1.
They could either have been the 5th live chat business… or the first conversational marketing platform.
Drift focus less on promoting their brand (people ignore brands) and more on promoting their category: conversational marketing (people love new things).
What did we learn?
If you are #1 in your category great… promote it. If not, create a new one.