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Nicolas Cole 🚢

Apr 8, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X

How do you design a category breakthrough?

Here's what we can learn from one of the most innovative food technology companies in America.

Campbell's Soup.

(Hint: Andy Warhol wasn't the reason.)

👇👇👇

100 years ago, The Campbell's Soup Company had a breakthrough.

For the first 30 years of being in business, they sold little else besides produce, canned tomatoes, vegetables, jellies, condiments, minced meats, and of course, soups.

Nothing "radically different."

Until, in 1895, a chemist within the company named John T. Dorrance came up with an idea.

If Campbell’s halved the water in each can, the business could produce and ship exponentially more soup (since the excess water was no longer needed)!

Eurika!

As a result, Dorrance and Campbell’s invented “condensed soup.”

New category.

This allowed the company to drop the price of a can of soup from 30 cents to 10 cents, expanding distribution and lowering the barrier to entry for new customers.

Today, The Campbell Soup Company is a $15B company.

Campbell’s condensed tomato, cream of mushroom, and chicken noodle soups remain as some of the most popular shelf-stable foods in grocery stores all across the United States.

The secret?

Instead of COMPETING, Campbell's CREATED.

They didn’t push a new flavor (tomato soup already existed).

They didn’t spin up a marketing tagline (“Mmm Mmm Good” is hardly a breakthrough).

And they didn’t "beat out the competition" by running 2-cents-off promotions

The lesson:

The way it is now, is the way it is, because someone else replaced the way it was.

Here's how to design a category breakthrough of your own in today's Roaring 2020s 👇

categorypirates.substack.com/p/campbells-so…

@lochhead

Co-authored with my fellow pirates @lochhead and @EddieWouldGrow

🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

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More from @Nicolascole77

Nicolas Cole 🚢

@Nicolascole77

Sep 19

This is Mark Manson.

• 3 NYT best-selling books
• Sold 20,000,000+ copies
• Wrote The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

But one day, Will Smith came knocking.

Here's what happened next:🧵

Will Smith wanted to write a memoir but struggled with the writing process.

Mark Manson, a best-selling author, was seen as a serious contender to be his ghostwriter.

So Will got in touch.

But Mark quickly saw how this would be unlike any other project he'd worked on before:

Mark saw the challenges to come:

• Restricted meeting time
• Capturing Will's distinct voice
• Balancing honesty and privacy
• Curating from 1000s hours of footage

But Mark was determined to create something truly "Will Smith."

Read 15 tweets

Nicolas Cole 🚢

@Nicolascole77

Sep 10

Writing Excuses 101.

These are the 6 lies we tell to shut our creative selves up:

(And the brutally honest reasons why you're holding yourself back)

Lie #1: "It needs to be perfect before I hit publish."

You're calling yourself a "perfectionist" because that's easier than:

• Putting yourself out there
• Getting feedback
• And beginning the iteration process

Perfectionism is just an advanced form of Procrastination.

Lie #2: "I don't have any time."

Time is a vacuum that gets filled with whatever is nearby.

Which means nobody "has" time.

We MAKE time.

"I don't have time" really just means "I don't want to make this a priority."

Read 8 tweets

Nicolas Cole 🚢

@Nicolascole77

Aug 18

The first step to writing any book:

Deciding on the title.

But most writers have no idea where to start.

So, I studied the titles of *hundreds* of best-selling books.

Here are 7 mini frameworks to help you write the perfect book title:

1. Write in a best-selling category

The top 7 categories are:

• Personal Development
• Personal Finance
• Insights/Thinking
• Leadership
• Case Study
• Personal Excellence
• Relationships

2. Use a Non-Obvious (Main Title) x Obvious (Subtitle)

Main Title: The Tipping Point

(Non Obvious. Reader goes, "Huh?")

Subtitle: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference

(Obvious. Reader goes, "Ah!")

Read 12 tweets

Nicolas Cole 🚢

@Nicolascole77

Aug 16

Everyone talks about legendary writers like:

Hemingway, Stephen King, or Henry David Thoreau.

But there is a British author who redefined the game forever.

Here’s the secret technique J. K. Rowling used to write one of the best-selling book series of all time:

At 32, J.K. Rowling was a single mom on welfare, struggling to make ends meet.

One day, while stuck on a delayed train, the character Harry Potter came to her fully formed.

And she spent the next 5 years meticulously planning the 7-book series before writing a single word.

Today, Harry Potter is the best-selling book series of all time (closely followed by Goosebumps).

Here's a breakdown of the 10-column outline method she used to create Harry Potter:

Read 11 tweets

Nicolas Cole 🚢

@Nicolascole77

Aug 9

I bet my life savings Christopher Nolan is the last great director of this century.

Not because of Inception, Interstellar, or Oppenheimer.

But because he found a secret method to irresistible storytelling:🧵

Nolan uses the Plot Map Technique to visualize his storyline.

He doesn’t want “constraints” to hold him back when writing the story.

So he uses this technique to help his production team visualize & then create it on screen.

Here he explains how he comes up with his ideas:

Let's take Inception as an example.

One of the most well-crafted movies of the last 50 years.

The intricate plot is a journey around dreams within dreams, jumping between layers of reality.

When asked about his inspiration — Nolan's answer shocked everyone:

Read 10 tweets

Nicolas Cole 🚢

@Nicolascole77

Aug 3

I’ve made $250,000+ from self-publishing.

But it sometimes makes sense to take the traditional publishing path.

Here are 7 questions every writer should ask themselves before trying to land a book deal:

Q1: Do you want Status or Money?

Most traditional book deals are horrible financially for authors. The reason they want them isn't really money—it's status.

"A publisher chose me!"

99% of the time, you will make more $$$ with self-publishing (but get zero status).

Here's why:

Q2: Do you meet 1 of The 5 Criteria to land a big book deal?

1. You're a celebrity.
2. You're a professional journalist.
3. You have a giant online audience.
4. You have "irreplaceable knowledge."
5. You're a graduate of a renowned creative writing program.

Read 12 tweets

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