3 steps to successful product claims

Did you know that 85 percent of household shopping is derived from repeat purchase? With brands fighting for consumer loyalty already, how do you ensure your product will break through, spark the initial interest and drive purchase?

When developing or relaunching a product, successful product claims are integral to the product’s success. Here’s how to ensure you’re on the right track with your product claims.

Product and packaging claims development is a big part of brand’s communications strategy. There are several ways your claims should impact the consumer to help push them to purchasing:

• Motivate interest or purchase

• Resonate with consumer needs

• Draw attention to your product

• Differentiate your product or service

• Fit with your wider communication strategy

Communicating in a way that achieves all of the above, however, is no easy feat. These 3 simple steps can steer decision making and ensure you move forward with the right claims for your product and brand.

The kinds of claims you develop and the language you use should be based on the context of your claims – where will they appear? In an ad? On pack? That will help you decide on the optimal wording.

You also need to consider how the claims connect to your product or service to support your overall market positioning. And importantly, make sure they are approved by legal. You would be surprised how many times clients test statements that can’t legally be used.

Once you’ve developed your claims, involve consumers to determine the most compelling statements. What is the call to action? To purchase your product? To drive interest in a new service? Which claims will drive that action?

Importantly, why your claims are compelling or not. For example, 2 or more of your best statements may score similarly, and you will need to pick one. That’s where supporting diagnostics – the why dimension – will help you determine the claim that best supports your overall marketing framework.

The most differentiating claims may still need some tweaking or refining of language. Scores don’t always provide all the answers, especially when claims score or rank similarly. Capturing the sentiment and verbatim on how consumers feel or talk about claims provides context.

You can use this feedback to further optimize the language in your statements and make your claims more compelling. It is recommended to test the refined phrases again to be sure – if time and budget allow.