When companies develop innovative products that don’t obviously fit within established categories, managers need to help people understand what they are. However what category you place something in has a huge influence on how you view its basic properties. Mary Tripsas reports in the New York Times.
“Depending upon what cues they are given, people will place the same item in different categories.
In management, these traits imply that companies can benefit by using comparisons to create expectations that best match an innovation’s strengths. [...]
Finding the right label is only one of the many ways organizations can influence the way consumers categorize a product. They can also experiment with the product’s shape, packaging, pricing and retail store placement.”