The ABC's of Researchers:  Attributes, Benefits, Claims

How understanding the role of the attributes you're measuring can guide you:   Apply the correct criteria for judging whether to include the attribute in your brand's positioning.

To show you what a geek I am:

  the first time I heard the word “attribute” at my brand-new job as an Assistant Project Director for a Manhattan market research supplier in 1976, I was thrilled.  The only prior times I had heard the word “attribute” as a noun was when it was applied to the mythic Greek heroes, like Achilles.  Achilles has “attributes.”  Now I was about to write “attributes” for... well, for a brand of bread.  Nonetheless, cool.  (Yes, “cool” is a much older attribute than you might think, and we did use it wa..a..ay back then.  Now settle down, young whippersnapper.)  

Many articles will break down attributes into subsets, but only a few explore the implications of those subsets.  There is a reason to pay attention to the role of the attribute.  Let’s examine why.

First, let’s acknowledge that we won’t use the word “attribute” in a questionnaire.  Not only has the respondent not heard the word often, he or she probably hasn’t heard of Achilles all that often, either.  So “attributes” turns out to be labeled in a questionnaire as “characteristics” or the rather un-cool (but easily understood) term, “statements.”

Roles of Attributes  

If “attributes” represents the set, then “benefits” and “claims” are subsets, and usually treated as mutually-exclusive subsets.

•     “Claims” hold a fact (sometimes a factoid, but ours is not to judge).  These are not limited to what the brand can do, but also facts about when, where, and/or how the brand might be utilized.
•     “Benefits” promise or imply an outcome, without necessarily being able to prove the truth of the outcome.  In turn, there are:
  •         “Functional Benefits” that promise or imply that the consumer will accomplish something, the why to use the brand; or
  •         “Emotional Benefits” that promise or imply that the consumer will feel a certain way, or be aligned with people who are a certain type or class.
•     Finally, there are “emotive” attributes about the brand’s “personality” or “essence” that are descriptive of the brand, while not necessarily of the consumer using the brand.  (The soap bubbles might be depicted as smiling and cheerful, without the communication insisting that you whistle while you work.)

Why the Role of the Attribute Matters  

As a researcher, whether an attribute is worth including in your brand’s positioning depends on your criteria.  Your criteria should change depending on the Role of Attribute you’re examining.

•     Claims and Functional Benefits are intended to speak to the “rational” person.  Attributes high on Stated Importance and that show Superior Performance or Better-Than-Expected Performance versus competition should get your attention here, even if they don’t perform particularly well on Motivation measures.  (Learn how we measure “BETTY” Better-Than-Expected Performance here.)
•     Emotive attributes of emotional benefits and brand personality/essence measures do not need to be acknowledged as “important” in order to work on behalf of the brand.  In the detergent phrase “blue power crystals,” arguably “power crystals” is a claim while “blue” is brand personality emotive term.  Such terms ought to Motivate and your brand should perform at least at category norm levels (“as expected”).  In fact, while you might have measured an Emotive attribute as a statement, if your brand isn’t registering any kind of superior/BETTY performance, urge your team to consider showing it, visually, rather than stating it verbally.  The idea is to let the emotional tug work for the brand without alerting the consumer's "rational" side to push back against the implication, rejecting it.
•     Ideally, the first step is to isolate a Benefit (Functional or Emotional) that performs well on all criteria:  Important, Motivating, Superior/BETTY performance.  Then the Important + Superior/BETTY claims that correlate well with that isolated Benefit come next.  The correlation is to reassure ourselves that the Claim will support the Benefit.  Having done this, the positioning can be fleshed out with Emotive messages, not all of which need intercorrelate strongly with the central Benefit.

Be a Pal, Take a Creative to lunch

I’ve chatted with Creative team members.  Our suspicions as researchers have at least some affirmation:  Creatives often ignore us and our reports when crafting positioning concepts for their brands.  Interestingly, this cavalier attitude is not because we’re too critical; it’s because we act as if we’re too obtuse.  From a Creative’s point of view, each phrase, and sometimes each adjective or adverb, has a role to play in completing a powerful, persuasive positioning.  The roles differ.  Remember, these folks studied poetry and public speeches.  For them, each word counts.  No matter how short their phrase, the Creative team invested thought into it.  Yet Researchers apply criteria like “Important” or “Motivating”  or "Credible" to every tested attribute as if each phrase is intended to perform exceptionally well on all criteria, simultaneously.   

Implication:  Match your Criteria to the intended Role of the Attribute.  

The more we researchers signal that we’re willing to judge messages on their intended roles, the more our criticism will be taken as constructive and insightful.