Clearing the four hurdles of product claim creation

Developing a winning claim is like completing an obstacle course - you need to pass all the hurdles to succeed. Claims that clear the hurdles of claim creation have a significantly higher likelihood of being successful than claims that do not. Our framework, based on learnings from over 60 claims studies, will help you fine-tune your value proposition and turn it into a winning claim!

What is a claim?

A claim is a concise statement about a product or brand which promises value to the consumer after the purchase. A claim is designed to drive consumer choice by calling upon desires or aspirations through the value it promises.

Hurdle 1: Promise value

The first challenge is to stay true to the essence of a claim: to promise value by offering benefits that help the consumer reach a desirable end state. It is absolutely critical to have one benefit, but it is even better to have multiple. A powerful way to address multiple benefits is to offer a solution to a dilemma by combining two seemingly incompatible benefits that are now successfully delivered at once, e.g. efficient and gentle.

Hurdle 2: Be specific

Being specific is the most important driver of claim appeal. The more specific your claim is, the better. Consumers like clarity. They want to know exactly what tangible benefits your product will deliver, and how much or how much more than competition. This will present the consumer with a value promise they can easily relate to and encourage them to choose your product over alternatives. Both words and numbers can help make a claim specific.

Hurdle 3: Set yourself apart

You are not alone on the shelf. More likely than not, consumers will compare you with a set of alternatives. It is important to position yourself by saying or implying that you offer greater value than the competition. There is, however, no evidence that comparative claims are better than non-comparative claims, which suggests that merely drawing a comparison with competition is not enough.

This stresses the importance of having a differentiating value promise that sets the product apart by default. When using a comparative claim, it is best to benchmark against the category. Benchmarking against your own brand can be a sign of weakness and targeting a single competitive brand can be considered bashing.

Hurdle 4: Avoid pitfalls

A claim needs to meet a set of minimum requirements to have a chance of success. While adhering to the claim mechanics below might not guarantee that a claim will be successful, it will ensure that the claim will not fall short because of weak articulation.

• Put the key benefit first - You only have a split second to capture a consumer's attention
• Be respectful - Do not be condescending, presumptuous or offending in any way
• Be positive - Offer something positive instead of avoiding something negative
• Be clear - Be unambiguous and use simple everyday language
• Be coherent - Make sure the benefits and RTBs arerelated to each other
• Be fluid - Create a sentence that flows naturally and does not sound contrived
• Refrain from jargon - Use words that are meaningful to the consumer
• Refrain from humor - Be direct and focus on efficiently getting your value message across

  Download our claims leaflet to find the example claims clarifying each of the hurdles

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