The features or benefits a brand must match to be considered a credible option in its category at all. From Kevin Lane Keller's brand positioning work: they don't win the sale, but missing one loses it.
When entering a category, writing positioning, building comparison pages, and when prospects keep dropping out over a 'table stakes' gap.
Online checkout and order tracking for an ecommerce store; SOC 2 compliance for B2B software; free Wi-Fi at a hotel; same-week scheduling for a home-services company.
A necessary, unglamorous play in every category. Flagged when a brand leads its marketing with parity points as if they were differentiators.
