Taking the Guesswork out of Messaging
Friday, October 16th, 2009
Effectively marketing products or services can sometimes be tricky. Of course, it starts by developing a compelling message. But even a slight change in the message phrasing, emphasis, or even alignment with the company’s brand can make a big difference in how the product or service is perceived.
Research can reveal if the market understands your product or service and if the messaging is effective. For example, last year one of our clients launched a completely new service to its traditional core audience. After sales for the service languished, they came to us to learn why. It was indeed perplexing, as our client was one of the top market leaders.
Our strategy was to conduct focus groups with members of the target audience. We initially presented the original positioning statement to participants, which tightly aligned the service with our clientís strong and trusted brand in order to leverage its credibility. Clearly confused, the focus group participants didn’t understand what the service was because it was so far outside the realm of our client’s traditional offerings.
In the next round of focus groups, we presented positioning statements to focus group participants without the corporate brand name included, and every one of them instantly understood and liked the offering. We got the same result in the remaining focus groups, verifying that our client’s strong and well-recognized brand was actually getting in the way of success. After significantly de-emphasizing the corporate brand and adjusting some of their messaging points in sales and marketing efforts, the service is now selling like hot cakes.
Qualitative research, such as focus groups and in-depth interviews, is typically the most effective method for testing positioning and messaging, as the open-ended format is effective for probing the “why” behind participants’ preferences and opinions.
In the long run, conducting positioning and messaging research prior to a launch can save you time and money as well as help you avoid lost opportunities.
