Message testing is more than a research checkbox – it’s a critical step in crafting brand and product communications that connect with your target audience. In a world saturated with advertising and competing messages, consumers make split-second decisions based on what they see and how they feel. A single word, phrase, or claim can shift perception, prompt interest, or drive purchase.

When companies skip or shortcut message testing, they risk relying on internal opinions or assumptions instead of real consumer insights. That can lead to missed opportunities, misunderstood value propositions, or worse – messages that confuse, offend, or fall flat. On the other hand, strong message testing uncovers what resonates authentically, helping teams speak with clarity and relevance.

Key Benefits of Message Testing in Strategy:

• Identify high-performing claims: See which messages actually move the needle on key metrics like purchase intent or believability.
• Understand consumer reactions: Learn how different segments interpret and respond to your language so you can fine-tune accordingly.
• Prioritize confidently: Allocate resources to the messages that have the greatest potential to drive action.
• Align teams around data: Replace subjective discussions with objective insight to speed up decision-making across marketing, brand, and innovation teams.

For brands rolling out a new positioning, launching a campaign, or testing product benefits, claims testing can be used to refine headline options, validate taglines, experiment with value statements, or even evaluate potential RTBs (reasons to believe). The goal is to find the language that not only sounds good internally – but also feels right to your audience.

Modern DIY research platforms like Zappi enable organizations to do this quickly and affordably. However, message testing works best when guided by a thoughtful strategic insight. Tools are only as valuable as the inputs and interpretations – and that’s where experienced researchers, such as those in SIVO’s On Demand Talent network, add real value. These experts help teams maintain focus, ensure consistency in claim testing, and decode results in ways that directly support business growth.

In short: great messaging doesn’t happen by luck. It’s informed by insight. A structured message testing framework ensures your words work harder, connect better, and deliver the outcomes your brand needs.

Once you’ve decided to conduct claims testing in a tool like Zappi, the next step is structuring your claim sets the right way. While Zappi offers a fast and intuitive platform, how you format and organize your test will directly affect the clarity of the results and the insights you draw from them.

At its core, a message testing framework in Zappi involves presenting a set of potential messages to a target audience and having them evaluated across key performance metrics – typically relevance, believability, clarity, uniqueness, and appeal. The structure and selection of these messages is where strategy comes in.

Tips for Structuring Effective Claim Sets:

• Start with clear test objectives: Are you testing product benefits, brand value statements, or promotional language? Define what you want to learn.
• Limit claim sets to avoid fatigue: Zappi recommends keeping each set to about 8–12 claims for optimal results. If you have more, consider breaking them into separate tests.
• Ensure variety and balance: Include a mix of message types – emotional, functional, storytelling, or direct benefit claims – so you can see what style performs best.
• Use consistent formatting: Present claims in the same tone, length, and context to avoid biasing results. A quick win: avoid changing voice or length across claims.

Let’s say a snack brand wants to test claims for a new product. A fictional example of a balanced set might include:

• "Crafted with real ingredients you can feel good about"
• "Bold flavor, no artificial aftertaste"
• "Zero added sugar, 100% enjoyment"
• "Snack smarter – good for you and your wallet"
• "Tested by real families, loved by kids everywhere"

Each claim plays a different role – one may emphasize health, another flavor, trust, or emotional appeal. Testing them head to head within the same structured framework can show which themes and messages perform best with your audience.

Finally, be thoughtful about which audiences you test with. Zappi allows for targeting by demographic, behavior, or usage profiles – and segmenting results can reveal important variations. For example, what resonates with younger consumers may differ from older ones, or parents may react differently than non-parents.

If claim writing or evaluation feels overwhelming, this is often where SIVO’s On Demand Talent becomes a game-changer. These consumer insights professionals can help structure smarter claim sets, avoid common pitfalls, and optimize testing frameworks within Zappi for better clarity and actionability. Your internal team may know your product or brand best – and with the guidance of expert researchers, you can turn that knowledge into messages that win in-market.

Once you’ve structured and launched your message testing in Zappi, the next critical step is seeing how consumers respond. Zappi's user-friendly dashboard offers insights that make it easier to evaluate resonance quickly and effectively. But what exactly does 'resonance' mean in this context?

Resonance refers to how well a message aligns with your target audience’s values, needs, and emotions. In Zappi's claims testing platform, this typically includes how believable, memorable, persuasive, or relevant your message is to consumers – helping you gauge whether it's likely to drive behavior.

Key Metrics Zappi Tracks

Zappi breaks down resonance into several consumer insight metrics, typically presented in an easy-to-compare format across all your claim variations. These may include:

• Believability – Does the consumer trust this message?
• Uniqueness – Does it stand out versus competitors?
• Relevance – Does the message feel meaningful to the target audience?
• Persuasiveness – Would it influence the consumer to act or consider the brand?

Each of these metrics is quantitatively scored, often using normative data to provide benchmarks across industries or geographies. This context helps you move beyond individual opinions and toward confident, data-driven decisions.

Making Sense of the Results

Let’s say you’re testing five marketing claims for a beverage brand. After running the claims test in Zappi, you may find that Claim A scores high in relevance but low in uniqueness, while Claim C scores evenly across all metrics but doesn’t stand out.

This type of analysis can help you quickly surface which messages deserve further development and which need rethinking. In some Zappi studies, verbatim responses are also analyzed to provide qualitative context – helping you understand the 'why' behind a claim’s performance.

Bringing Insights Closer to Action

For consumer insights teams using DIY research tools, the goal is to move swiftly from data to decision. Zappi simplifies this by delivering results in clear dashboards and visualizations. However, understanding which metrics matter most for your specific brand or campaign still requires thoughtful interpretation.

This is where experience or strategic support can make an impact – especially as DIY tools become easier to access but not necessarily easier to master. Ultimately, the better you understand how to evaluate resonance, the more confidently you can translate feedback into business impact.

Once your Zappi metrics are in hand, the next step is to translate them into messaging priorities. Not every high-scoring message makes the final cut – and not every low-scoring message should be discarded. Prioritization and refinement are where smart insights strategy turns raw data into a meaningful message framework.

Start by Sorting Top Performers

First, look for the messages that perform consistently well across key attributes for your business goals. If you’re launching a new product, messages that score high in persuasiveness and uniqueness may be your top priority. If you're repositioning an existing brand, believability and relevance might be more critical.

Zappi's filtering and comparison tools make it simple to isolate standout messages based on your chosen KPIs. Don’t just rely on one high score – consider overall balance and how each message could work within a broader campaign ecosystem.

Identify Candidates for Refinement

Not every message is a yes or no. Some land in the middle – performing well in part, but leaving room for improvement. Use these insights to revise and retest based on:

• Tweaking language for clarity or emotional impact
• Adjusting claims to better align with audience needs
• Combining elements of two average-performing messages into a stronger composite

For example, a fictional skincare brand might find that its claim “Trusted by experts for a decade” is highly believable but not very unique. By adjusting it to “The expert-recommended serum designed with 10 years of active skin science,” they might retain credibility while boosting uniqueness.

Creating a Tiered Message Approach

From there, structure your message framework with a tiered view:

• Core messages – Your best-performing claims that will anchor your brand communications
• Support messages – Refined variants that help target different audience segments, channels, or use cases
• Explore later – Lower performers that may still work with future optimization or repositioning

This organized approach helps teams move forward with confidence, especially when working across functions like brand, media, and creative. It ensures the strongest messages rise to the top while creating a roadmap for strategic message evolution over time.

Ultimately, message testing isn’t just about validation – it's about unlocking optimization. A thoughtful prioritization process helps teams build adaptable, insight-backed marketing strategies that resonate in fast-changing markets.

DIY research tools like Zappi are revolutionizing how insights teams work – bringing speed, automation, and scale that were once only possible through traditional agencies. However, these tools don’t eliminate the need for expertise. They amplify the need for it.

That’s where SIVO’s On Demand Talent comes in. Even with Zappi’s intuitive design and ready-to-launch templates, building a message testing framework that truly delivers still requires strategic thinking, deep consumer understanding, and the ability to interpret and apply findings in the real world.

Experience Adds the Human Edge

While Zappi can score how believable your message is, it won’t know if that believability aligns with your brand’s tone or fits within your competitive landscape. On Demand insights professionals bring the context that tools can’t replicate – including:

• Crafting testable claims grounded in brand and category knowledge
• Understanding which metrics matter for different stages of the funnel
• Distilling findings into actionable messaging strategies
• Identifying when rewording a message could improve performance – and how to do it

These aren’t just technical skills – they come from years of research experience across industries, markets, and methodologies.

Get the Flexibility Without the Guesswork

If your team is new to platforms like Zappi or doesn’t have time to build test-ready messages from scratch, On Demand Talent can step in immediately – without the commitment of hiring full-time or the costs of working with large agencies. They complement your internal team’s strengths, fill urgent gaps, and help build your team’s ongoing capability.

For example, a global CPG company might use an On Demand Talent expert to help run point on a message optimization sprint – working closely within Zappi while guiding best practices for refining marketing claims.

Unlike freelancers or consultants, SIVO’s On Demand professionals are vetted, reliable, and uniquely positioned to plug into your workflows at speed. You get expert hands-on help from day one – with no need for a steep learning curve or onboarding ramp.

Make the Most of Your Research Investments

Investing in DIY market research tools is a smart move – but to unlock their full value, users need more than just buttons to click. They need people who know what to do with the data once they have it. On Demand Talent bridges that gap, helping ensure your claims testing is accurate, actionable, and aligned with your goals.

It’s not about choosing between technology and talent. It’s about striking the right balance – and SIVO helps you get there.