Posted by Molly Nelson - Your business has just developed a brand new product or service - it is new and different, maybe even revolutionary. But according to this
article in the New York Times, you will likely be better off marketing your stroke of genius to customers as related to something familiar, instead of as a novel innovation.
When faced with something unfamiliar, people will automatically attempt to associate it with something familiar to help make sense of it. You can use your marketing to take advantage of this tendency and guide consumers' understanding.
Marketing your product as similar or related to other known items will allow consumers to categorize it, and this categorization will provide cues of what the item is and how to use it. However, keep in mind that people will place the same item in different categories based on the cues they are given.