A Century of Lis, Echoing Positioning: Seeking the Next Category King

Creation •Growth: A century‑long question about new categories.

In September 2026, Nvidia founder Jensen Huang summed up his fundamental thinking into three books on the Ezra Klein podcast. One of them is “Positioning” co‑authored by Al Ries and Jack Trout. He said it appears to be a book about marketing tactics, but in fact it is a strategic work that teaches how to view the world and how to view products.

From a 2023 speech at Berkeley Haas School of Business, to the 2025 Menlo Ventures Annual CEO Summit, to this year’s podcast, “Positioning” has been publicly recommended by Jensen Huang three times in just three years.

A person who builds GPUs, computing power, and accelerated computing doesn’t look for underlying logic in technical books, but extracts strategy from a work “misread by many as a marketing book” — that in itself is worth pondering.

2026 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the “father of positioning,” Al Ries. His “Positioning” has been on the market for nearly 60 years. This theory has explained the Coke vs. Pepsi “cola wars,” IBM’s transformation, and has accompanied a group of Chinese companies—Great Wall, Wanglaoji, Boss Appliance, Junlebao, Xpeng—continuously growing, breaking through, and navigating cycles.

In six decades, media have changed across generations, channels have been restructured several times, traffic has moved from TV to search and then from search to algorithms, yet “Positioning” has always remained in people’s minds, occupying an irreplaceable place.

Today we revisit “Positioning,” not out of nostalgia for a classic, but because—this era needs it more than ever.

Why does “Positioning” remain a benchmark in the AI era?

Because the battlefield it points to has never moved.

After AI reshapes everything, the cost of producing and distributing information drops to near zero, the supply side expands infinitely, but mental bandwidth does not scale accordingly; it is instead squeezed further by shorter content and fragmented attention. As a result, all brands are pushed toward the same narrow entry point.

The global CEO of Lis Strategic Consulting once mentioned in a conversation with Daniel Kahneman that in practice they discovered a consumer’s brain can store a lot of product information, but the amount of information for the same category of products is very limited.

George Miller’s article “The Magical Number 7 ± 2: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information” also suggests that the same type of information can only be stored as 7 ± 2 items. Daniel Kahneman comments: “Our human brain’s ability to create concepts is essentially unlimited. However, within an existing category, the first impression of that category is extremely important. A single‑category information list has limits because memory competes when storing information of the same category.”

In this competition, most brands never truly enter the consumer’s mind; they simply fight on the same battlefield, using almost identical approaches to vie for a position that has long been filled.

The value of “Positioning” lies in its repeated argument for a breakthrough path—you can manufacture products in a factory, but you can only win a brand in the mind.

It can be said that, regardless of the era,competition takes place in the customer’s mind.

Growth comes not from “better,” but from “new categories”

The conclusion that “positioning is still important” is easy to reach, but how to execute “positioning” well in today’s especially complex era remains the challenge.

Classic positioning discusses: in an existing category, how can you get consumers to choose you over the competition? It’s about fighting for a more prominent spot on an already established mental map. In an era when categories were not yet saturated, this was an effective growth logic.

But in today’s context, legacy categories are overcrowded, price wars and product refreshes yield diminishing marginal returns and are increasingly “not worth it.” In the nineteen years of practice since Al Ries founded Ries Strategic Positioning Consulting in China, a recurring insight has been validated:Instead of “fighting for first place” in an existing category, it’s better to create a new category and be “first from the start” in the consumer’s mind.

This is the “category innovation” that Zhang Yun proposed based on Al Ries’s classic positioning. Al Ries himself called it the “ultimate positioning.” Its core shift is:the unit of competition changes from “the brand’s position within a category” to “the mental void of the category itself.” Instead of asking “how can I win within an existing category,” we ask “which area in consumers’ minds has a real need but has not yet been named, and where can I be the first to occupy.”

Taking the automotive industry as an example, the veteran automaker Great Wall Motors discovered a category opportunity for trendy off‑road SUVs amid the wave of electrification: off‑road SUV buyers mainly use the vehicle for city commuting, with very few actually engaging in extreme off‑roading, and a rugged design is the core purchase driver; traditional off‑road SUVs are uncomfortable and poorly built, making them unsuitable for city travel. As a result, consumers perceive a gap for a category that “both meets city commuting needs and accommodates occasional off‑roading,” i.e., a “comfortable rugged off‑road vehicle.” Great Wall Motors therefore created the highly sought‑after Chinese market brand “Tank” in 2021: in its first year on the market it sold 20 billion yuan, generated 2 billion yuan in profit, captured a 50% market share, and became a Chinese automotive brand with exceptionally high per‑vehicle profitability.

Once dubbed a “new force,” Xpeng didn’t stay confined within the “new force” label; it stepped out of the “new energy vehicle” framework and redefined itself as a “global AI intelligent driving technology company,” seizing the emerging “AI car” category. Xpeng set the benchmark for AI cars with the P7+: the entire lineup comes standard with end‑to‑end AI intelligent driving—no options, no subscriptions, no extra fees—bringing what used to be a 300,000‑yuan smart‑driving sedan directly into the 180,000‑yuan segment. The market voted with orders—over 30,000 units delivered within three months of the P7+ launch, breaking delivery records for its class; after one year, cumulative deliveries exceeded 88,000 units, keeping it among the top mid‑large pure‑electric sedans in the 150,000‑200,000‑yuan range for 12 consecutive months.

From “new force” to “AI car,” Xpeng achieved not just a brand makeover but a category rewrite, turning “AI car” from a vague concept into a tangible, purchasable, and usable new product class for consumers.

In the fast‑moving consumer goods sector, similar cases are plentiful. Take Wei Long’s konjac snack. Previously, consumers only associated Wei Long with “sweet‑spicy snack sticks,” and the snack‑stick category had hit its ceiling and was burdened with an “unhealthy” label. So Wei Long elevated konjac snacks to a primary strategic focus, shifting the positioning from “chewy, tasty snack” to “lower calories, more refreshing”—a low‑calorie spicy snack that hit the consumer trend of “finding tasty options that are healthy.” As a result, konjac snacks became Wei Long’s second super‑product, generating over 2.5 billion yuan in annual sales.

The common thread of these cases isn’t that the positioning statements are spot‑on, but that they create a brand‑new category and open a fresh growth curve. They don’t aim to “grab a bigger slice of the existing cake,” but instead redraw the mental map. The basic unit of growth shifts from “fighting for market share” to “expanding the category map.”

Three Major Directions That Spawn New Categories

In 2026, which “mental gaps” are worth betting on? Lis outlines three major directions—not hot tracks, but three structural opportunities.

Super Technology: AI Is Not a Category; It’s the “thing” AI reshapes that matters

AI’s reshaping of countless industries needs no further comment, but “AI itself” is over‑hyped; what is easily underestimated are the “categories redefined by AI” — for example, AI glasses are not a new category, the “AI assistant worn on the eyes” is; AI cars are not a new category, the “AI‑driven car affordable under 150,000” is; AI sewing machines are not a new category, the “industrial sewing equipment that can understand on its own” is…

Between a technological breakthrough and the establishment of a new category lies a finely granular insight into consumer needs; brands must repeatedly ask themselves not “what else can AI do,” but what void in the consumer’s mind they can fill once they have super technology.

No one knows the definitive answer. But the category king will emerge from those who answer correctly first.

Global benchmark: Going overseas is not “selling the goods,” it’s “building the brand.”

In the past decade, the main theme of Chinese companies going overseas has been supply‑chain expansion: cost‑performance, channels, distribution, and creating hit products.

But as going abroad shifts from an optional choice for many brands to a necessity, the questions change as well. Data shows that 71.1% of Chinese companies have adopted a brand‑overseas strategy, with 54.6% citing “avoiding internal competition” as the main reason, and 42.4% because domestic profit margins are under pressure. The problem is that when overseas expansion is driven by a desire to escape internal competition, companies easily transplant their domestic tactics abroad—entering a new market while continuing the same parameter battles and price wars.

Escaping can only provide a temporary breather and does not truly enable Chinese firms to build global competitiveness; only a brand, more precisely a brand centered on category definition, has a better chance to transcend cycles.

Today, selling a million units overseas doesn’t mean you dominate a category. “Thinking glasses” and “display devices worn on the eyes” are two completely different go‑global strategies: the former relies on defining a new category, the latter easily falls into specs competition.

The future global brands won’t be “cheap Chinese alternatives,” but the mental‑native of a new category.

Health trend: not a “low‑sugar, low‑calorie” label battle, but a rewrite of category standards

Health consumption is one of the hottest yet most chaotic tracks right now.

Low‑sugar, low‑fat, low‑GI, high‑protein, zero‑additive, functional… labels are everywhere, but users are still confused: what am I actually buying? Why do I need it? How is it fundamentally different from my previous choices?

Often the supply side can already create good products, but the consumer side doesn’t know why they should keep consuming them. The issue isn’t the formula, but the category definition, failing to translate “health” into a concrete, perceivable daily scenario. For example, it’s not “yogurt,” but “zero‑sugar yet tasty daily protein supplement”; not “snack,” but “a remedy for low‑sugar people between meals”; not “alcohol,” but “a low‑burden social drink”.

Future health categories won’t win by the words “healthier”; they’ll win by new categories created after resegmenting demand.

From breakthrough technology to global benchmarks to health trends, the combination of three forces means this round of category innovation is not a localized opportunity; a vast new territory worth rediscovering and pioneering will emerge, and changes in the commercial sector will intensify as a result.

Grand ceremony upgrade, searching for the next category king

Positioning is about grabbing a spot on the existing mental map; category innovation is about creating a brand‑new mental map first and owning it. The methods have changed, the battlefield remains the same—ultimately it’s a battle for users’ minds.

Of course, “creating a new category” is not easy in practice. It’s not just launching a new product or naming a new concept; it requires a complete chain: genuine demand is identified, the demand is translated into a product, the product delivers on its promise, incremental value is validated, and dominance is established. Missing any link means the category is just a label.

Precisely for this reason, identifying “who is truly creating a new category” cannot rely solely on the brand’s own narrative nor on existing scale. It requires media, investors, companies, and founders to sit at the same table and repeatedly ask the same questions using a unified standard.

The 2026 Future Category King Launch Ceremony and the centennial commemoration of “Father of Positioning” Al Ries took place as an industry experiment against this backdrop.

The event is led by Lis Consulting, supported by dozens of mainstream media outlets, and will be held at the Shanghai World Reception Hall on November 14‑15, 2026. Unlike previous entrepreneur success‑story sharing sessions, this ceremony is upgraded to an open platform, allowing emerging categories on the trend curve to gain visibility on this stage. This year, for the first time under the name Ai Lis, it brings together media, investors, and companies to become an industry platform that cross‑identifies “who is creating the next category.”

The conference, themed “Creating Growth,” focuses on three pillars: super‑technology, health trends, and global benchmarks. Over a hundred new categories will be showcased, more than 30 category pioneers will take the stage, and thousands of founders and key decision‑makers will attend. The accompanying “Ai Lis Future Category King” award clearly targets “category creation value” rather than existing scale, evaluating true demand, demand translation, product delivery, incremental impact, and dominance. In other words, it does not reward who is biggest today, but identifies who is most qualified to ascend the mental ladder of tomorrow.

Before the ceremony opens, we want to present the questions first.

Lis and 36Kr jointly launch the “100 Questions on New Categories” solicitation campaign. We believe that great new categories often arise from a seemingly simple yet fundamental question. Rather than providing answers first, we prefer to invite more people to ask the right questions. We invite you to pose questions about the future in the comment section of this article, from the three dimensions of super technology, global benchmarks, and health trends.

Sample questions:

How can cutting‑edge technology be translated into new, tangible lifestyle categories for the public?

Under the trend of nationwide health, what other untapped tracks are waiting to be explored?

Chinese brands going global, how to shift from following the market to defining it?

A good question deserves to be seen. The high‑quality questions you raise will not only be dissected by leading industry entrepreneurs, industry research experts, and senior strategic consultants, providing forward‑looking professional insights, but may also be selected for the official content of the “2026 Future Category King Launch Event,” giving you a chance to discuss new business paradigms of the future with industry leaders. Post your question in the comments section; the top five comments with the most likes will receive an exclusive limited‑edition book set commemorating the centennial of Ai Lis.

Looking back over a century, Ai Lis left not a marketing slogan but a strategic question—don’t just ask how to win in existing categories, ask which new category still has no name. Commemorating a hundred years isn’t about putting classics on display, but about continuing to use this question to probe the future. Before the ceremony opens, the question goes to you: as technology, globalization, and health trends rewrite daily life, which unmet need will you name first?

Depth, insight, foresight, capturing business opportunities for the top 1%

Curated public accounts under 36Kr