Video
Reframing Perception: Moving Beyond Old Category Mindsets
Shift perception beyond legacy category labels with practical steps to anchor on a new customer problem, align teams, and signal change with proof
Summary
As organisations grow, the wrong category frame drags on margins and slows decisions. What was once clear turns into price-led comparison. Brand strategy regains control by defining the problem on your terms and aligning offers, pricing and proof. From there, buyers judge your strengths—and pricing power and momentum follow.
Watch The Video
In this video, Dipendra Mistry (CSO & Managing Partner) explains how to master category framing to drive growth in mid‑market organisations.Our Perspective
What this means for leaders navigating growth, change or transformation in their organisation.
Hidden Tax On Growth
Category labels look tidy on a slide, but they quietly dictate how you’re judged. If the frame is off, you invite comparisons you can’t win: price becomes the headline, nuance is lost, and growth feels harder than it should. McKinsey notes that offerings plotted against the wrong “value map” often ceded market share even when they were priced lower or spec’d higher—evidence that misaligned framing erodes perceived value rather than rewarding it.
This is a strategic cost, not a copy issue. It shows up as thinner margins, slower pipelines, and teams shipping features that make you look more similar, not more singular. You can spend more on campaigns and still reinforce the wrong story.
How The Cost Compounds
From our experience this normally shows up as three reinforcing drags that compound over time.
- Commercial: Default comparisons compress margin; discounts become the only lever that moves deals.
- Operational: Roadmaps follow the category herd; scarce engineering and marketing effort chase parity.
- Cultural: Talent and partners misread your ambition; advocacy dips because the narrative lacks edge.
Individually they’re subtle. Together they anchor you to the market’s centre of gravity, not your own.
Reframe The Comparison
The practical fix is to control the yardstick. Define the problem space in your terms, then make that the lens for pricing, packaging and proof. When the comparison set changes, willingness to pay and speed to yes usually follow. Marketing Science reports that on Amazon, sellers who synced list prices with price movements increased both margins and sales over 13 months—proof that coherent reference points can shift outcomes without adding features.
This isn’t semantics. It’s choosing the lane you compete in, and the price you attract, by making your strengths the default filter for judgement.
Leadership Moves
This is senior-team work because framing only sticks when product, marketing and sales align around it.
- Decide the frame: Name the problem you own and the comparison you must win—then retire ambiguous labels.
- Align economics: Tie pricing tiers, bundles, and channel plays to the frame; reflect it in sales talk tracks.
- Instrument it: Update dashboards to track deals and margins by frame-aware narratives, not legacy categories.
Most organisations we work with unlock momentum once they choose one comparison to win and remove the rest from the room.
The Payoff
When the frame fits the problem you uniquely resolve, buyers adopt your metrics, partners calibrate to your direction, and teams prioritise with conviction. The cost of misalignment doesn’t blow up in a single quarter; it compounds as diluted value, slow decisions, and fragile differentiation. Reclaim the frame, and you regain pricing power and narrative clarity—the kind that endures even as markets move and competitors copy.
Sources:
- Framing Price Increase as Discount: A New Manipulation of Reference Price — Marketing Science
- Setting value, not price — McKinsey
Further Resources
No two brand journeys are the same — connect with us if you’d like to test where your next step might lead. Let’s talk.
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Brand Strategy