Market Research Toolbox: Staying on Message With Your Consumers

Delivering High-Impact Messages to Key Customer Segments

Solid messages are the basis for ad campaigns, sales pitches, Web sites, and many other communication outlets.  In fact, the message is the most fundamental element of nearly every sales, marketing, and communication endeavor your company undertakes.  BioInformatics offers Message Testing to help companies remove doubt about the effectiveness of the messages they use to communicate with current and potential customers and keep their messaging program consistent across campaigns.

 

Case Study: Are we communicating the right message?

As part of a leading life science supplier’s advertising assessment, BioInformatics conducted extensive message testing to ensure that our client was on the right track with its customers.  We evaluated the feedback of hundreds of life scientists using a variety of statistical techniques.  Results indicated that our client had adequately assessed the marketplace and was perfectly on message concerning their product.  The market validation and peace of mind gained from the study allowed our client to continue with a high-impact marketing campaign—with the knowledge that they were reaching customers with the best possible message.

 

Understanding Message Testing

The parameters of Message Testing vary widely and are based upon the desired outcome of the test.  In many cases, companies simply seek to understand which messages will be the most effective in a particular segment.  Other situations warrant testing a specific message to gauge its effectiveness in comparison to other potential messages.  In either case, message testing utilizes the same basic statistical procedures to produce results:

• Mean – used to assess stated like or dislike of a message
• Standard Deviation – indicates credibility or variation in message acceptance
• Correlation – used to tie messages to the response each message should invoke
• Multiple Regression Analysis – discovers how multiple messages link to a particular outcome

These analyses are combined to provide insight into which messages are the most credible, popular, and which have the highest direct impact on positive (or negative) behavior change.  Testing messages with actual audience members takes the guesswork out of how your communication strategy will play out in the market.

Delivering Results

Based upon BioInformatics’ research findings, our client launched a major advertising campaign using the exact messages we tested.  The campaign—one of the most widely recognized in the industry—was built around a message that research indicated would resonate with a diverse audience.  Our research was on target and the client continues to enjoy increasing success!

Message testing helps prevent a marketing disaster by assessing the impact of potential messages and providing conclusive results about which messages are best for particular audiences.

 

To get more information on BioInformatics’ Message Testing or to discuss further details of your potential market study, please contact Greg Thompson at 703-778-3080 x-22 or [email protected].