June 05, 2025

Category Creation Playbook: How to Be Irreplaceable in B2B Marketing (with Josh Lowman)

1 hour 1 minute

#252 Category Creation | Dave is joined by Josh Lowman, Founder and Creative Director of Gold Front, a category design studio that’s worked with brands like Uber, Notion, and Qualtrics. Josh is a leading voice in strategic brand positioning and category creation. He’s spent over a decade helping high-growth B2B companies define what makes them irreplaceable in crowded markets.

Dave and Josh cover:

Why most category creation efforts fail (and what to do instead)
The four real paths to category leadership: create, transform, niche, or go solo
How B2B marketers can align product, brand, and messaging around a single strategy to stand out and scale

Whether you're launching a new product or repositioning an existing one, this episode is a masterclass in strategic clarity.

Timestamps

(00:00) - – Intro

(03:14) - – Josh’s backstory and founding Gold Front

(06:29) - – How Gold Front became a category design studio

(08:44) - – What “category creation” really means

(11:59) - – Why being irreplaceable is the real goal

(15:04) - – The four paths to category leadership

(18:49) - – Why Drift didn’t succeed in creating a true category

(22:44) - – Clay and Notion as category-of-one examples

(25:34) - – Marketing vs. actual customer perception

(30:23) - – Can Exit Five be more than the “Dave Gerhardt community”?

(33:18) - – How to scale brand DNA beyond the founder

(36:08) - – Defining Exit Five’s ethos as a company

(38:28) - – Strategy as a company-wide unifier

(41:18) - – Advice for CMOs on driving strategy with CEOs

(43:53) - – Why strategy is always the root cause

(45:23) - – Vibe marketing and the rise of right-brain thinking

(48:08) - – Josh’s mental health journey and long-term therapy

(51:38) - – LinkedIn, self-worth, and staying grounded

(54:08) - – Weightlifting, discipline, and mental clarity

(57:08) - – Daily habits that improve mindset

(01:00:23) - – What 30 days of silent meditation does to your brain

(01:05:08) - – Final thoughts on presence, self-work, and leadership

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Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

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