An Insight Into Category Creation

Category creation is when a brand doesn’t just launch a new product or service - it names and leads a new way of doing business. Instead of competing for a slice of the existing industry pie, it bakes a different pie and invites the industry to try it. In professional beauty, where many offerings can look and sound the same (facials, devices, education, wholesale), true category creation gives founders a language, a model, and a movement that others then adopt.

Below, a quick insight on what category creation is - and two industry examples doing it with confidence and clarity: aglow and Home of Aesthetics.

What category creation is (and isn’t)

• New rules of value. Category creators often shift how value is priced, delivered and measured (e.g., recurring revenue over once-off bookings; curated access over cold outreach).

• A movement which becomes market norm. The brand educates the market, names the model, and builds community around it until competitors begin to copy the language.

Why category creation matters within industry

• Pricing power & predictability. When you design the playing field, you also set the economic logic (think subscriptions, retention, contracted revenue).

• Moat through language. If the market repeats your phrases, you’ve won mindshare.

• Faster adoption curves. Clear category stories reduce buyer confusion and make change feel obvious - especially for time-poor clinic owners.
  

Case study 1: aglow — productising predictable care with beauty memberships

aglow has planted a very clear flag: beauty memberships as a growth engine for salons and clinics. Their category story is simple and sticky: “treatment plans on a membership” - small, regular instalments for clients; stable, recurring revenue for the business. aglow positions itself not as another generic payments add-on, but as beauty-specific membership infrastructure with the playbooks, support and tooling to run a membership-first clinic.

Why it’s smart category design

• Clear name of the game. “Beauty memberships” is plain English. Owners immediately grasp the model.

• Economic promise. The point of difference centres on predictable cash flow, higher client retention, and higher average spend.

• Specialist stance. “We’re membership specialists, not a booking system.” That line draws a hard category boundary and lifts perceived value.

• Behaviour change. When teams roster, plan cash flow, and set sales targets around members (not one-offs) you know the category has landed.
  

The effect: aglow isn’t selling software; it’s selling a new revenue lever. And when a model sticks, it rewires how owners build teams, purchase equipment and scale - all classic signs of a category taking root.

Case study 2: Home of Aesthetics — the “middle-woman” marketplace for B2B beauty

Home of Aesthetics (HOA) is carving out a professional-only wholesale marketplace and directory that connects brands with the true decision-makers in clinics and salons. Instead of relying on trade shows, cold BDM outreach or scattered vendor lists, HOA frames a new centre of gravity: a curated, pro-only one-stop shop for the Australian professional channel.

Why it’s smart category design

• Solves both sides. Brands gain targeted discovery and distribution; clinics gain time-saving research, simpler procurement, and curated visibility across categories - from skincare to consumables and business services.

• Professional gatekeeping. By sitting firmly in the B2B lane, HOA separates itself from consumer marketplaces and generic directories.

• Ecosystem energy. Live demos, education and networking turn a directory into a community, accelerating adoption and trust.

The effect: HOA’s category is essentially the “beauty trade marketplace”—a middle-woman that formalises how discovery and purchasing happen in the industry channel, and in doing so, changes how both sides budget, sample and scale.

Why category creation is hard

• Behaviour change + education load. People resist change, and early adoption is rife in business, but moreso in our industry. It's difficult to get people onboard and get people to start using new language.

• Cold start. You're starting completely fresh. If no one has ever done what you're doing, then it's a higher hill to climb.

• Copycats + stamina. Our industry mimics fast. Own the narrative: think trademarkable language, a community first mentality, proprietary data, and tight messaging then stick with it.

Category creators don’t win by shouting louder; they win by changing the conversation. aglow has reframed skin and aesthetic services as membership-first businesses with predictability and loyalty baked in. HOA is formalising a professional B2B marketplace that shortens the gap between the brands and the people who actually decide.

If your brand is sitting on a model that genuinely rewires how clinics buy, sell, or deliver outcomes, start today. That’s category creation.