Lateral Marketing and Market Innovation: New Categories, Brand Naming and Launch – London, 28 Dec 2026 – 1 Jan 2027

Programme overview

Introduction:

Lateral marketing answers a problem many mature brands share: each new flavour, size or segment variant wins less than the last, shelves crowd, prices erode and launches cannibalise the core. Vertical marketing keeps slicing the same market, while lateral marketing displaces the need, the target, the moment or the product itself to open a new category. This Core Concept course trains marketing, brand, product and sales managers to generate displacements, connect them into saleable offers, name and test them, and prepare the sales force to sell them. Participants build a Lateral Marketing Concept and Launch Plan for a case brand.

Course Objectives:

• Diagnose when segmentation-led line extensions in a mature category have stopped producing profitable growth
• Apply the focus, displacement and connection sequence to generate new-category ideas at market, product and marketing mix level
• Shape a new category through a category point of view, brand architecture choice and a screened shortlist of names
• Test novel propositions with customers using concept boards, monadic tests and controlled launch designs
• Prepare the sales team to sell a new category and track results with a marketing innovation scorecard
• Produce a Lateral Marketing Concept and Launch Plan for a case brand

Target Audience:

• Marketing managers responsible for growth targets in mature or crowded categories
• Brand managers who own brand portfolios, extensions and naming decisions
• Product managers who define and launch new offers and variants
• Sales managers who brief and coach field teams on new product introductions
• Category and trade marketing managers who argue for shelf and channel space for new offers
• Insight managers who design concept tests and launch research

Course Outline:

Day 1: Vertical Marketing Limits and the Case for Lateral Thinking

• Vertical Marketing Sequence: Need Definition, Segmentation, Positioning and Line Extension
• Market Fragmentation and Brand Proliferation Diagnostic for a Mature Category
• Kotler and Trias de Bes Lateral Marketing Model: Origins and Premises
• Vertical Versus Lateral Innovation Comparison Grid
• Category Saturation Audit: Shelf Crowding, Price Erosion and Launch Hit Rates

Day 2: The Lateral Marketing Process: Focus, Displacement and Connection

• Focus Selection Among Market, Product and Marketing Mix Levels
• Six Displacement Techniques: Substitution, Inversion, Combination, Exaggeration, Elimination and Reordering
• Market-Level Displacement Across Need, Target, Time, Place, Situation and Experience
• Product-Level Displacement of Tangible Core, Packaging, Brand Attributes and Usage
• Connection Methods: Purchase Process Walkthrough, Positive Extraction and Possible Setting Search

Day 3: New Categories, Brand Architecture, Naming and Concept Tests

• Marketing Mix Displacement in Pricing Formula, Distribution Route and Communication Form
• Category Design: Problem Framing, Category Point of View and Category Label
• Brand Architecture for a New Offer: Branded House, Endorsed Brand and Stand-Alone Brand
• Naming Brief and Name Screening: Descriptive, Suggestive and Coined Names With Trademark Search
• Concept Boards With Monadic and Sequential Monadic Tests and Purchase Intent Scales

Day 4: Launch Risk, Idea Pipeline and Sales Force Readiness

• Diffusion of Innovations Adopter Curve and Chasm Crossing Beachhead Selection
• Controlled Store Tests, Soft Launch and Rollout Wave Design
• Marketing Idea Funnel: Displacement Backlog, Screening Criteria and Stop Decisions
• Sales Enablement for New-Category Selling: Pitch Narrative, Objection Library and Incentive Design
• Marketing Innovation Scorecard: New-Offer Revenue Share, Trial, Repeat and Cannibalisation Rate

Day 5: Case Brand Lateral Concept and Launch Plan

• Case Brand Briefs From Packaged Food, Retail Banking and Consumer Electronics
• Displacement Sprint: Generating and Connecting Gaps for the Chosen Case Brand
• Concept Board and Name Shortlist Build for the Selected Idea
• Launch Plan Drafting: Beachhead, Rollout Waves, Sales Briefing and Scorecard Targets
• Lateral Marketing Concept and Launch Plan Pitch to a Brand Review Panel

Skills You Will Gain:

• Lateral Displacement Generation
• Category Design
• Brand Naming
• Brand Architecture Decisions
• Concept Testing
• Launch Sequencing
• New-Category Sales Enablement
• Marketing Innovation Measurement

Why Attend This Course:

• Leave with a Lateral Marketing Concept and Launch Plan defended before a brand review panel
• Break out of the cycle of low-return line extensions with a repeatable idea-generation routine
• Give the sales force a pitch, objection answers and incentives that make a new category sell
• Work displacement exercises with peers from packaged goods, banking, retail and technology brands

Conclusion:

Growth in a crowded category rarely comes from one more variant. The course moves from the limits of vertical marketing, through the focus, displacement and connection sequence at market, product and marketing mix level, to category design, brand architecture, naming and concept testing, then launch sequencing, idea pipeline control, sales enablement and innovation measurement. The final day applies the method to a case brand and produces a Lateral Marketing Concept and Launch Plan ready for review.