We offer the perfect blend of art and science in our approaches to message and claims testing. By harnessing the "science" of forced choice methods and other analytically sophisticated tools, we deliver focused management solutions. To this, we add the "art" of category expertise, applying the collective insights of hundreds of previous studies.

Food and beverage manufacturers rely on us to bring them the value of nutritional claims and health/wellness messages. Pharmaceutical companies select us to derive the optimal messages to drive positioning strategies for new therapy launches. We also advise clients on the ideal claims construction – or clinical endpoints – for future claims validation exercises. Our approaches are geared toward several clear-cut management goals:

Identifying Messages That Support Positioning Strategies

Marketers of new products and in-line brands need clear cut answers to

• What is the best marketing message for our new product launch?
• What on-package claim will motivate consumers to choose our brand at the shelf?
• Which competitive messages pose the greatest threat?

Identifying the Optimal Product Claims

Having tested a multitude of potential product claims, we focus our clients on those claims that show the greatest future promise. Clients use this intelligence to screen and focus resources around the best claim candidates for future development and refinement, by answering the following:

• Which functional or emotional claims resonate most with our target segments?
• Which currently unproven claims should be earmarked for validation in the future?
• What is the likely market traction of a new claim (before going to the trouble of costly claims validation and outcomes research)?
• What cluster of claims offers the most promise for future product platform development?

Optimizing the Message Language

In some cases, our clients know what they want to say but are unsure of the best way in which to say it. Well designed message evaluations can parse apart the impact of different message and language construction. We quantify:

• What message construction and language will be the most effective vehicles to convey a distinct set of benefits to our target audiences?
• What is the optimal blend of functional and emotional messages?
• Which set-up and benefit statements are best aligned with base claims?

Knowledge Networks' analytical approaches are tailored to the specific questions faced. We use two broad analytical frameworks:

1. Optimizing "Hard-wired" Claims or Messages
   Ideal for a pre-determined list of more than five candidate claims or messages, this approach uses a simple forced choice exercise in addition to traditional ratings like purchase interest. The forced choice exercise provides discrimination superior to traditional rating exercises.. Along with diagnostic measures, composite measures are developed that summarize a message's power in a single score. These tests can be conducted among different audiences to understand how well a message performs in acquiring versus retaining customers.
2. Optimizing Elements of a Message
   For situations where you wish to determine the optimal bundle of message components, Knowledge Networks uses discrete choice and other forced choice tools that model the market effects of the permutations and combinations of different message elements. Deciding on the optimal blend of core claims, set-up statements, and benefit statements requires a flexible tool that can model the numerous scenarios. This approach is suitable for building optimal messages where the whole is greater than the sum of its constituent parts.

In addition to traditional reports, Knowledge Networks provides interactive decision tools or simulators. We also partner with clients to build custom norms and databases, providing a repository of knowledge to develop best practices for ongoing message construction.

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