Claims are the elevator pitch for your product or brand. They tout unique product benefits succinctly and convincingly. As an example, a kitchen blender manufacturer may make the claim that “2 out of 3 consumers prefer our blender over the leading brand for blending frozen foods”.
Claims made should be clear, truthful and brief. Just like with an elevator pitch, you only have a few seconds to make an impact and strength your brand. Don’t waste those valuable moments.
Here are some Dos and Don’ts to consider when developing claims:
- Be in touch with your customers. Avoid advertising claims that are true but irrelevant to customers. If customers don’t care about the benefit you’re touting, the claim is worthless. Avoid this pitfall by focusing your claim on differentiating attributes. To that end, consider conducting primary research with consumers to deeply explore true brand differentiators. These insights can be gleaned through a variety of types of qualitative research including customer interviews, focus groups and even customer surveys. Sometimes, companies think particular features are valued by customers only to realize that other features are the most valued ones. Primary qualitative research can uncover these insights.
- Don’t make meaningless claims. Some claims simply state the obvious, announcing things that would be true for any brand in the category. For example, a blush that claims to make your cheeks look rosy is no different than any other blush in the category 1. While this guideline may seem obvious, marketers can lose sight of this when they’re too close to a product or brand. So, think hard about whether your claim is truly meaningful.
- Ensure your claims are strong and compelling. Give customers a reason to consider or reconsider your brand. For an in-store claim, think about what will make a customer pick up your brand vs. the competition’s. For example, can you use social proof to show that others prefer your brand? Can you demonstrate a benefit unique to your brand?
- Evaluate the strength of your claim among the sea of other category claims. Especially when it comes to in-store claims, consumers often look at your claim right next to competitors’ claims. Conduct research with customers to understand how the advertising claims stack up against each other. Consider how the language, tone, and style of your claim measure up to those of the competition. Customers can often provide fantastic insight into their perceptions around the relative strength of various claims.
- Think about your own portfolio of claims. Your competitors’ claims are not the only ones that you should consider. Assess your claim next to other claims that your company may have in the category. If the different products in your portfolio are targeted at different customer segments, think about how well each claim will resonate with each audience.
Regardless of the claim you plan to make, once you settle on the desired claim language, you will need to substantiate your claim. AMS is equipped to help you with both claim development and claim substantiation.
1 http://home.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/comp/ad-claims.html