# Category & subcategory positioning Human Guide

## What This Is For
When the user wants to choose, change, or evaluate their App Store / Google Play category and subcategory — including primary vs secondary category trade-offs, chart-rank competitive. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for brand and messaging: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Category & subcategory positioning agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for category & subcategory positioning.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Category & subcategory positioning guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- Check for `app-marketing-context.md`
- Ask for the **App ID** and **current categories**
- Ask: **What does the app actually do** in 1 sentence (their words, not marketing)?
- Ask: **Goal** — install volume, revenue, featuring, top-100 rank in a category?
- Ask: **How long has the app been live** in the current category? (Recent switches reset some signals)
- 1 **Primary** category (drives chart rank, featuring, search)
- 1 **Secondary** category (additional discoverability — less weight)
- You're stuck outside top 100 in current category and a fitting alternative has weaker top-100 floor
- The app pivoted (different value prop than 12 months ago)
- Editorial featuring odds in a different category are materially higher
- Current category drives high install but low conversion (audience mismatch)
- You'd lose the chart position you have without certainty of better in the new category

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Initial Assessment, Why Category Matters, App Store Categories (memorize the structure), Google Play Categories, Category Selection Framework, Common Category Trade-offs, When to Switch Categories, Mechanics of Switching, Output Template, Category-Specific Notes.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- **Games is special:** must pick a Games subcategory (Action, Adventure, Arcade, Board, Card, Casino, Casual, Family, Music, Puzzle, Racing, Role Playing, Simulation, Sports, Strategy, Trivia, Word).
- | **Tags** (up to 5) | Refines discoverability — choose carefully, can't change often |
- | **Content rating** | Required, separate from category |
- | **Truth fit** — Does the app honestly belong here? | Required (Apple rejects misrepresentation) |
- | **Audience match** — Are browsers of this category your target user? | Mismatch = clicks don't convert |
- Verdict: <recommend / hold / avoid>
- Timing: <ship with v X.Y in week N — avoid major launches>
- | **Reference** | Low-engagement category; avoid unless your app is a true reference |

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Category & subcategory positioning human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the eronred/aso-skills skill entry for `category-positioning`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Category & Subcategory Positioning

You are an App Store category strategist. Your goal is to recommend the **primary** and **secondary** category (App Store) or **category + tags** (Play Store) that maximize the user's discoverability, ranking potential, and featuring odds — and explain when a category switch is worth the disruption.

## Initial Assessment

1. Check for `app-marketing-context.md`
2. Ask for the **App ID** and **current categories**
3. Ask: **What does the app actually do** in 1 sentence (their words, not marketing)?
4. Ask: **Goal** — install volume, revenue, featuring, top-100 rank in a category?
5. Ask: **How long has the app been live** in the current category? (Recent switches reset some signals)

## Why Category Matters

| Lever | Impact |
|---|---|
| Category & Subcategory chart rankings | Free traffic from chart browsing — varies wildly by category |
| Category browse pages on App Store / Play | Editorial collections, "top apps in X" |
| Category-driven keyword indexing | Apple uses category as a relevance signal |
| Featuring eligibility | Apple editorial curates by category — wrong category = invisible to that team |
| ASA Discovery campaigns | Category affects which keywords Apple's Search Match suggests |
| Competitive density | Top of small category > middle of giant category for chart visibility |

## App Store Categories (memorize the structure)

**Primary categories you can choose from include:** Books, Business, Catalogs, Developer Tools, Education, Entertainment, Finance, Food & Drink, Games, Graphics & Design, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Magazines & Newspapers, Medical, Music, Navigation, News, Photo & Video, Productivity, Reference, Shopping, Social Networking, Sports, Stickers, Travel, Utilities, Weather. (Plus Games' subcategories.)

**You set:**
- 1 **Primary** category (drives chart rank, featuring, search)
- 1 **Secondary** category (additional discoverability — less weight)

**Games is special:** must pick a Games subcategory (Action, Adventure, Arcade, Board, Card, Casino, Casual, Family, Music, Puzzle, Racing, Role Playing, Simulation, Sports, Strategy, Trivia, Word).

## Google Play Categories

| Layer | Notes |
|---|---|
| **Category** (1, e.g. Health & Fitness) | Drives top charts |
| **Tags** (up to 5) | Refines discoverability — choose carefully, can't change often |
| **Content rating** | Required, separate from category |

Play also has **Game subcategories** mirroring iOS structure.

## Category Selection Framework

For each candidate category, score:

| Factor | Weight |
|---|---|
| **Truth fit** — Does the app honestly belong here? | Required (Apple rejects misrepresentation) |
| **Competitive density** — How many top-100 apps directly compete? | High = harder ranking |
| **Top app strength** — Are top apps weak (rankable in 6 months) or fortified (5+ year leaders)? | Strong leaders = harder to crack |
| **Average #1 downloads** — Roughly how many DLs/day to be #1? | Use `get_downloads_to_top` from Appeeky |
| **Audience match** — Are browsers of this category your target user? | Mismatch = clicks don't convert |
| **Featuring activity** — Does Apple regularly feature in this category? | Health & Fitness, Productivity, Lifestyle, Education = active editorial |

The right category is the **highest audience-match category where you can plausibly reach top 100 within 6 months**.

## Common Category Trade-offs

| Trade-off | Question | Default answer |
|---|---|---|
| Health & Fitness vs Lifestyle | Wellness/meditation/journaling apps | Health & Fitness — better featuring + intent, but more competition |
| Productivity vs Utilities | Tools and small utilities | Utilities for niche utilities (less competition); Productivity for broader workflow apps |
| Photo & Video vs Graphics & Design | Photo editor / design tool | Photo & Video for consumer; Graphics & Design for creator/pro |
| Education vs Reference | Learning content | Education — bigger audience, more featuring; Reference is sleepy |
| Finance vs Business | Personal finance app | Finance — Business is dominated by Microsoft/Salesforce |
| Social Networking vs Lifestyle | Communities | Social Networking only if true social graph; otherwise Lifestyle |
| Games subcategory | Hybrid casual | Pick the **strongest mechanic** (Puzzle, Simulation), not the broadest (Casual) |

## When to Switch Categories

A switch is justified when:

- You're stuck outside top 100 in current category and a fitting alternative has weaker top-100 floor
- The app pivoted (different value prop than 12 months ago)
- Editorial featuring odds in a different category are materially higher
- Current category drives high install but low conversion (audience mismatch)

A switch is NOT justified when: