How to Develop
Winning
Marketing
Claims
A Case Study on the Apple Watch™
Summary
Apple Watch™ marketing claim key findings
•• We compared two of Apple’s® marketing claims on the Apple Watch™
against each other:
What you’ll learn in this guide
We’ll show you how to use surveys to test
marketing claims by taking the guesswork out of
your big decisions.
Our guide includes:
•• Tips for getting key metrics
•• Best practices on writing claims testing surveys
•• A real-world example of how our claims testing
framework can be applied to your brand
oo We found that the claim with a style and personal preference focus
scored higher in clarity, a key metric.
•• Identifying what resonates with a target market allows for more targeted
advertising and potentially higher likeability and purchase intent:
oo Taking a further look, we were able to segment the market into two
distinct groups—early adopters and those who wait to purchase
new products.
•• The differences for early adopters, Apple’s® target market, and later stage
adopters, were significant:
oo Early adopters found the claim with a style and personal preference
focus more convincing, unique, and memorable.
oo They also listed text messaging as the most important for a smartwatch to have, significantly higher than any apps their later adopter
counterparts listed.
Created by and for the use of SurveyMonkey.
This study was not commissioned by Apple® or the other companies measured in the study.
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Table of Contents
5
Marketing Claims
Testing Overview
9
The Smartwatch Category
16
Market Segmentation
12
Apple Watch™ Study:
Marketing Claims Test
19
Taking It to the Next Level
3
Methodology
What?
How?
When?
SurveyMonkey fielded a
Marketing Claim Test study on
two Apple® marketing claims to
demonstrate how to successfully
test marketing claims.
The survey was fielded through the
SurveyMonkey panel. Respondents
represented the general U.S.
population. A total sample size of
417 was used for this study.
We fielded the survey
from 5/1/15–5/4/15.
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Marketing Claims
Testing Overview
5
5 benefits of testing claims with surveys
Test various claims
quickly and easily
Filter out the
ineffective claims
Refine your
good ideas
Test with
diverse audiences
A survey allows you to present
a wide range of ideas to
your target market, and get
quantitative feedback fast.
Let your target market
decide what works and
what falls flat by asking them
directly to investigate what
customers want.
If you test a bunch of
concepts through a survey,
you can quickly see which
ones are rising to the top.
It’s much easier to use
surveys than expensive focus
groups to reach different
demographic groups in your
target market and segment
their responses.
Save money
After you’ve launched your
first concept testing survey,
take a look at the results and
see if any ideas tanked. Now
imagine having spent months
and thousands of dollars
developing those ideas.
6
How to determine marketing claim success
The quickest way to determine a winning claim is to use a standard scoring model.
This is an example scorecard that incorporates several key success metrics depending on the type of claim you’re testing and how you define a successful claim.
Top 2 Box: The percentage of respondents who answered the two most positive answer options
A
B
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
Attributes Tested
Step 1: Define your key
success metrics.
Purchase Intent
Statistical Significance
Appeal
Statistical Significance
Uniqueness
Statistical Significance
Step 2: Set the number
of metrics depending
on the claim you’re
testing and how you
define success.
Relevance
Statistical Significance
Average Score
*Z-test scores at 95% confidence interval
Created by SurveyMonkey
Step 5: Determine which claims performed better by using stat testing, a calculation that
shows if two numbers or scores have a significant, or big enough, difference. This shows if
one concept truly resonates with consumers more than the others.
Step 3: Use the top 2
answer choices for each
question to more easily
compare how each
claim performed.
Step 4: Compare the
average scores of each
claim to determine which
one performed best
based on the success
metrics you chose.
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7
Key success metrics
Here are several key metrics you can incorporate into a claim test:
Purchase Intent:
Appeal:
Recall:
Uniqueness:
Whether your claim motivates
respondents to buy
The overall appeal of your
claim is a strong indicator of
purchase intent
A gauge of how well your target
audience remembers your claim
How different one claim is
from the others
Relevance:
Perception of Quality:
Message Clarity:
Believability:
A way to determine if your claim
resonates with respondents
If your claim is perceived to be for
a high quality brand/product
How clearly your claim messaging
is understood by respondents
How trustworthy your claim
is perceived to be
8
The Smartwatch Category
9
Apple’s® entering a new market...
Do you own any of the following devices?
75%
80%
...but they’ve got high category recognition
100% of respondents knew what a smartwatch is:
“A smartwatch is a computerized wristwatch with touchscreen
50%
display and functionality that is enhanced beyond timekeeping.
Many smartwatches run mobile apps, while a smaller number of
23%
models run a mobile operating system.”*
20%
*Definition provided to respondents.
3%
0%
An activity/fitness tracker
(e.g. Fitbit, Garmin, etc.)
A smartwatch
(Apple Watch, pebble, etc.)
No, I don’t own either
of these devices
10
10
And Apple® has the highest brand recognition
Based on your current knowledge,
which of the following companies make smartwatches?
100%
93%
90%
80%
70%
60%
23%
50%
40%
40%
30%
18%
20%
18%
13%
13%
11%
11%
10%
4%
0%
Apple®
SAMSUNG®
Android™
Google®
Sony®
LG®
Motorola®
Pebble®
Other
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11
Apple Watch™ Study:
Marketing Claims Test
12
Apple® claims test summary
Background:
Goal:
Key insights:
Apple® released the Apple Watch™
for pre-orders on April 10, 2015.
We used SurveyMonkey to test the
effectiveness of two of the marketing
claims found on the Apple® website.
Put two in-field claims head
to head to see which one
performs better.
•• We found that the claim with a style
and personal preference focus scored
higher in clarity, a key metric.
•• We then segmented the market into
two distinct groups to see which claim
resonated best with the target market.
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13
The 2 claims
Claim 1:
Person and technology relationship focus
Claim 2:
Style and personal preference focus
“Our most personal device yet. Apple Watch represents a new
chapter in the relationship people have with technology. It’s our
most personal product yet, because it’s the first one designed
to be worn.”
“There’s an Apple Watch for everyone. A device you wear
is vastly different from one you keep on a desk or carry in
your pocket. It’s more than a tool. It’s a true expression of
your personal taste. So we designed Apple Watch to reflect
a wide range of styles and preferences. Because we want
you to love wearing it as much as you love using it.”
vs
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14
Apple Watch™ scorecard
We found that the claim with a style and personal preference focus (Claim 2) scored higher in all key metrics:
Claim Test Scorecard (Top 2 Box Scores)
Claim 1: Person and technology
relationship focus
(A)
Claim 2: Style and personal
preference focus
(B)
n=417
n=417
Top 2 Box = Extremely likely + Very likely
11%
12%
Top 2 Box = Extremely appealing + Very appealing
36%
37%
Top 2 Box = Extremely unique + Very unique
33%
37% (A)
Top 2 Box = Extremely relevant + Very relevant
33%
41%
28%
32%
Attributes Tested
Purchase Intent
Statistical Significance
Believability
Statistical Significance
Likeability
Statistical Significance
Clarity
Statistical Significance
Average Score
*Z-test scores at 0.95 confidence interval
15
15
Market Segmentation
16
Segmenting responses reveals additional data
Taking a further look, we segmented the market into two distinct groups:
early adopters and those who wait to purchase new products.
“I usually try new
products before
other people do.”
Identifying what resonates with the target market allows for more
targeted advertising and higher likeability and purchase intent.
Strongly agree
Agree
Early adopters
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Later-stage adopters
17
17
Identifying what resonates with the target market
The differences for early adopters, Apple’s® target market, were significant:
They found Claim 2 clearly more convincing, unique, and memorable.
They also listed text messaging and phone calls as the most important for a
smartwatch to have, higher than any apps their later adopter counterparts listed.
60%
25%
56%
55%
21%
51%
50%
22%
22%
20%
40%
16%
38%
37%
35%
15%
30%
16%
15%
17%
11%
23%
20%
13%
10%
18%
15%
6%
7%
6%
5%
10%
1%2%
0%
Confusing
Late
Convincing
Irritating
Unique
Early
Later stage adopters
found it more irritating
Memorable
0%
Text
Messaging
Late
Phone
Calls
Calendar
Activity
tracking
Camera
remote
1%
Music
Maps
Instagram
Early
Later stage adopters selected
activity tracking as their top choice
18
18
Taking It to the Next Level
19
Going beyond your first test
Claims testing goes beyond asking respondents to rank and rate claims against one another.
Take it a step further:
•• Ask respondents open-ended
questions to get the "Why?" behind
their answers.
•• Track your performance over time by
setting up recurring surveys.
Need some help selecting
metrics? We can help.
•• SurveyMonkey can provide you a list
of all the available key metrics you
can test and get respondents to rate
claims on.
The possibilities are endless:
•• Package testing, logo testing, name
testing, claims testing...the list goes on.
•• Our concept testing framework spans
a variety of categories—all you have
to do is provide us the stimuli, and we
can make that concept Testing happen.
Contact us to get started
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Bring Your Best Ideas to Market
with Claims Testing
Learn more about testing your marketing claims
by contacting SurveyMonkey today:
Contact us to get started
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