The E-commerce Berlin Expo is the largest pure-play B2B ecommerce event in Germany, gathering operators, brands and technology leaders from across Europe. Their tenth edition takes place on February 17 and 18, 2026 at Messe Berlin and is expected to welcome more than fourteen thousand attendees.

Most companies believe success comes from outperforming the market leader. They study the leader, compare themselves to it, and try to win by being slightly better. But trying to compete inside someone else’s category is not strategy. It is submission. That is why Pepsi will never beat Coca Cola, no matter how many blind taste tests it wins. And it is why most companies lose the moment they start comparing themselves.

Pepsi spends billions trying to convince the world it tastes better. Every time it does, it reinforces Coca Cola as the benchmark. The more Pepsi promotes its difference, the more it reminds customers of Coke. Competing on improvement only strengthens the category leader. This is the trap most companies never escape. And it is where category design decides who wins.

This is where Brendan Hughes challenged our industry.

When companies position themselves as alternatives, they validate the category created by the leader.

A strategy built on comparison is not a strategy. It is unpaid marketing for the dominant player. In tech, it happens daily.

A new customer support platform claims to be faster or smarter than Zendesk. The result is predictable. Zendesk becomes the anchor in every conversation, while the challenger remains a footnote. The moment you compete on being better, you accept someone else’s rules.

Brendan illustrated this through Ryanair, now Europe’s largest airline. Its rise did not come from being a cheaper version of a full service airline.

In its early days, Ryanair tried to imitate British Airways and Aer Lingus, offering low prices with full service expectations.

It failed. The breakthrough came from a single operational insight: asset utilization. The business only worked if planes spent more time flying and less time waiting.

That one decision created a category of low cost, no frills travel, where value comes from price and punctuality, not comfort. The airline defined its own rules.

Stairwells and tarmac boarding are not flaws. They are part of the value exchange. Expectations only become a problem when you try to operate inside a promise you never made. When you set the rules yourself, customers cannot judge you by standards that do not apply.

Brendan criticised the common behaviour of SaaS founders. Many love building features. When they feel pressure, they build even more. Instead of improving the communication of value, they expand their roadmap. Instead of owning an outcome, they expand their feature list. It does not create differentiation. It creates confusion.

The real work is to define the transformation you deliver and design the category around it. Brendan calls this the shift from the subscription economy to the value economy.

The strongest companies are not the ones with the most capabilities. They are the ones who can measure and sell a result. Selling tools is replaceable. Selling transformation is not.

Category design is not marketing jargon.

It is a leadership decision. It demands clarity about the problem you exist to solve and discipline in how you educate the market. It challenges companies to behave differently on purpose, not louder or cheaper. When a business stops improving what already exists and begins shaping expectations around a new way of thinking, it earns something more durable than attention. It earns the right to lead.

Pepsi will never beat Coca Cola, because Coke owns the category.

Ryanair did not beat British Airways. It made them irrelevant to its segment. The companies with the strongest future will not try to be better versions of what already exists. They will build categories no one else can define.

This level of maturity is what we cultivate inside the EVOLVE Commerce Club.

Senior operators from 48 markets learning directly from leaders like Brendan Hughes and elevating their own categories with clarity instead of noise.

If you are building value through long term thinking and strategic depth, you will feel at home here.

You can buy Brendan’s latest book on Amazon Today

If you’d like to learn more how to partner with us during 2026 please email us at [email protected] or [email protected]

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