Points of Parity and Difference
Points of Parity and Difference is a simple framework for inspecting how a brand should be presented, and how it could gain an advantage against other brands in its competitive frame of reference.
01
Theory
Points of Parity and Difference is a simple framework for inspecting how a brand should be presented, and how it could gain an advantage against other brands in its competitive frame of reference.
What are points of parity and difference?
There are three types of points: categorial points of parity, competitive points of parity, and points of difference.
PoPs and PoDs are brand associations, and should not be mixed with product features. For example, if a product has strong technical security features, then associating the brand with feelings of security and integrity would be essential (parity), although certainly not unique (difference).
Categorical points of parity
Minimum required associations a brand must have in order to have any credibility, or to be considered at least "good enough" in its product category. Can be also inherited from parent categories.
Competitive points of parity
When a competing brand comes up with a unique point of difference, another brand can counter that advantage with a special "equally good" point of parity that brings the brands to equally desirable alternatives in their category.
Points of difference
Positive, desirable and unique brand associations and benefits which, in the target audience's minds, set a brand apart from its competitors in this specific product category.
How to establish points of parity and difference?
1. Do your homework
Research the target market and understand what are its current points of parity. In other words, find out what are the customers' baseline expectations for any product and brand in the intended category.
2. Ensure category compliance
First thing for any brand seeking entry into a market is to ensure that it checks all the right boxes for brand associations. So, ensure your brand's credibility on the market by covering all categorical points of parity.
3. Match competitors' offerings
Counter as many competing brands' points of difference by matching them with your competitive points of parity.
4. Gain advantage
Build competitive advantage by coming up with unique points of difference that are desirable, deliverable and truly differentiating.
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Points of parity
In order to become a relevant party in the category of web application development platforms, we believe we need to meet the following points of parity
For Developers
For the bottom-up approach to work, the brand needs to feel right for the developers first and foremost. If they don't quite feel for the product, they are not going to invest their time into trying it out in a project, and it won't gain any traction inside any organizations.
Legitimate
This is a real technology solving a real problem for the developers. It's not just hype, has traction and popularity, belongs in its product category.
Substance
There's enough technical expertise and depth in the product. It's solidly built by professionals to cover all important aspects.
Approachable
It's easy to get started, seems to understand developers, makes you feel capable, inviting instead of intimidating.
Developer-empowering
This technology enhances developers' capabilities and makes them more effective instead of limiting or constraining them.
Professional-grade
This is serious, well-crafted technology that a professional developer can rely on. This is feeling that goes beyond just features – it's about how the technology makes developers feel about their work.
Production-validated
Other developers have already succeeded in building and deploying real products into production with this technology.
Career-smart
Investing time in learning and using this technology is valuable for developers' professional growth and future opportunities.
For Economic Buyers
Economic Buyers share some of the points with developers, but they also have their own set of points from a business perspective.
Business-safe
Make a safe choice from a business perspective. This is all about mitigating risks for the present and near term. Attributes behind this association: battle-proven and company-backed technology, externally validated, availability of 1st party support, can find developers to hire, no surprises such as scalability issues during production, etc.
Investment-worthy
Investing into this technology will deliver good return on investment through increased productivity and reduced development or maintenance costs.
Future-proof
Long-term sensibility of commiting to a technology. Technology needs to stay relevant, fresh and competitive, and evolve together with industry standards. Technology should be relevant even if business needs change over time. Needs for costly rewrites and migrations should be minimized.
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Points of difference
We believe we can strengthen our position in the category of web application development platforms by differentiating ourselves in the following ways
For Developers
For business web apps
This product is packed with all the necessary features and additional productivity-enhancing tools for building business web apps - instead of a general-purpose web application framework. This product is made for teams that need to deliver results in a business setting, managing their resources, mindful of their time and budget - instead of teams tinkering on their dream projects, or teams building custom solutions for global scale.
Developer-first
This product is made for professional developers, and the brand communicates as a developer to another developer. The team truly prioritizes developers' needs, in contrast to other business-focused competitors with top-down business process approaches. It offers sensible defaults, but still leaves a lot of flexibility and freedom of choice for developers to make their own adjustments.
Full-stack level-up
With this technology, developers are able to level up their existing Java skills and become happier, more productive, in control of their solution across the whole tech stack.
For Economic Buyers
Full-stack level-up
With this technology, developers become 2x more productive and you can leverage your existing Java developers to do more.
Business multiplier
This technology is built by a team understanding customer organizations' composition, ways of working, pain points and providing tools for increasing their productivity.
Long-term trust
This technology is backed by a mature company, and it's been built primarily with real customers in mind instead of their own internal teams. It offers a superb default long-term support plan and additional extensions, ensuring your applications will keep running as long as needed.