comms testing

The development of our Brandphonics® approach, coupled with the practical application of techniques like eye-tracking and facial coding, allows MMR Research to offer an added value range of solutions for testing adverts, letters, brochures, websites, POS material and all forms of communication.

This, together with our range of interactive online techniques means we can not only understand impact and relevance, but also highlight optimisation potential and clearly understand the emotional impact a specific piece of comms is having on both your brand and your target consumer.

It's powerful stuff, and a great way of stopping the research process being the grim reaper for anything remotely creative.

Check out the case studies for examples

Finding the smoothest claim (1 of 7)

A leading skincare brand wanted to investigate the relevance of one of their key claims to the UK market in order to inform future communication strategy.

As part of an online survey, Best Worst Scaling was employed to assess the motivation of different skincare claims before delving more deeply into individual skincare concerns and subsequent actions.

The survey revealed that the claim in question did indeed resonate with the UK market, and using the additional data gathered about individual approaches to skincare, MMR were able to recommend several ways of leveraging this claim to greater advantage.

A more lively old age (2 of 7)

A major financial services company came to us wanting to assess six different design routes for their pension promotional materials. The brand was struggling to retain customers, and it was felt that a new approach to printed communications could help reconnect customers and make them more confident in the business. An online survey was used to understand

all aspects of the alternative design routes. Cover graphics, content and style were all assessed directly, with Hotspots being used to identify areas that contained more (or less) relevant information. Importantly the impact on brand image and perceptions was assessed, with a comparative section helping to choose the most appropriate

design on this basis. Along with a number of suggestions for improving the content and visual style of the documents, we were able to make a clear recommendations for one design route that achieved an excellent balance between being informative, friendly and portraying the brand in a more positive light.

How can a hit be a miss? (3 of 7)

Following the disappointing in-market performance of a critically acclaimed advert, a major ad agency came to us to see if we could find out why it hadn't had the desired effect.

We linked traditional measures (which were positive towards the ad in general) with Brandphonics® profiling and identified a serious lack of consonance between the brand and the communication style - it was both failing to take the brand in the desired direction, and jarred strongly with expectations.

Eye-tracking linked to Facial Coding also demonstrated a large disconnect between two parts of the ad, meaning the key messages were lost and little link made between these and the brand.

Identifying a pipeline of communication routes (4 of 7)

A programme of research conducted over four waves to identify the optimal communication strategy for a functional cereal product amongst its core target market. Best Worst Scaling (a choice based method) was applied to maximise discrimination between the

claims and identify a clear hierarchy in terms of how motivating each would be. Including a subset of key benchmark claims (previous communication routes used by the brand) provided context to enable us to fully understand the potential that the different routes offered the brand.

Asking each respondent to complete a more holistic assessment on a subset of claims provided detailed feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of each route, and allowed us to provide suggestions on how best to apply this in market.

Making money interesting! (5 of 7)

Here, the objective was to help a major financial services provider to make a range of their annual statements more useful, engaging and easier to understand for their customers. An online survey was used, with a range of techniques employed to understand how people interacted with the

material. Hotspots identified areas they found useful (and not so useful), Sticky Notes helped us understand areas that caused confusion and timed Pinpointer tests helped to establish how easy to find key pieces of information were. Direct questioning around style, content and the

image the documents portrayed was linked with the above information to ensure we could recommend a new style that improved comprehension and clarity, whilst helping to improve the way people felt towards the brand. This new style is now in use.

Identifying claims to build brand affinity (6 of 7)

An extensive investigation into which claims would be most motivating for a range of energy and sport drink sub brands, whilst strengthening the link with the parent brand. The research assessed 90 claims across 11 different categories (from health related to celebrity endorsement to product attributes).

With increasing levels of threat from own label products, it was essential for the research to identify which claims had the best level of fit with both the individual sub brands and the parent brand as well as providing a hierarchy of claims in terms of how motivating they were. Incorporation of emotional and functional profiling of the brands themselves and each claim

enabled a clear understanding of which claims could help build affinity with the brand(s) and really help to support the brands' points of difference compared to competitors. We were able to advise in terms of which claims would help to differentiate the sub brands whilst maintaining or even enhancing the core equities associated with the parent brand.

Perking up coffee sales (7 of 7)

A quick and cost effective survey to help understand why print adverts weren't having the desired effect on sales for a major ethical coffee producer. A short OmniPLUS survey was conducted, with a 5 day turnaround. Two client adverts were assessed along with one competitor

ad. Flash Testing, Hotspots and Conceptual Profiling were used to understand performance. Whilst the ads were well received overall - a number of problems existed, primarily around brand recognition, fit to category and

amount of text. Clear optimisation guidance was provided to maximise the impact of the ads, with subtle tonality changes recommended to ensure a better match to the emotional connection consumers made with the brand.