The Most Efficient Path to an Advertising Claim

Comparative advertising claims allow brands to differentiate themselves from the competition. However, it’s not as easy as simply saying you have the better product.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, brands that utilize comparative claims must be able to substantiate them whether they directly reference competitors or not.

How your brand goes about obtaining that proof is largely dependent on your advertising goals, budget, company size, and even the types of claims you’d like to pursue.

Taking Budget into Account

Consumer research often involves surveying large groups of your target market in a number of geographic regions nationwide. Finding those groups, as well as professionals to conduct the research, can be expensive and time-consuming.

An expert panel, which must incorporate blind taste tests and a formulaic, repeatable method of measuring taste, can result in cost-savings because the research does not have to be conducted in various geographic regions.

Pursuing Specific Claims

Choosing which method of taste testing you prefer will determine which ad claims you can use.

It’s important to keep in mind that consumer research, though costly, does not guarantee positive results such as the ability to take substantiated ad claims to market.

If favorable results are obtained, however, consumer research can open the door to using the following ad claims:

• Claims involving people’s feelings about your product as compared to the competition (e.g., people prefer your chocolate flavor over the competition’s)
• Claims stating people like it (e.g., kids like cereal A)
• Claims stating people still like it following a change in formula (e.g., same great taste that kids love, now with half the sugar)

Expert panels, which are usually much more cost-efficient, can pave the way for the following ad claims:

• Claims regarding superior taste (e.g., this specific Greek yogurt tastes better than any other products in its category)
• Claims about a product’s attributes (e.g., more chocolate flavor)
• Claims about how it performs (e.g., cereal A remains crunchy when eaten with milk)
• Claims regarding changes in taste following reformulations (e.g., same great taste, with half the sodium)
• Claims regarding product differences (e.g., jelly A has more strawberry flavor than jelly B)

The End Result

Both consumer and expert panel research allow brands to make parity claims, which compare a brand’s product to other products in the marketplace and assert that the product is “as good as” or “better than” the competition.

What the two forms of research do not have in common, however, is the time and money needed to conduct the tests.

Unlock coveted advertising claims efficiently by utilizing an expert panel. To submit your product for a taste test today, contact ChefsBest.