A messaging hierarchy is a framework that helps brands communicate in a clear, consistent, and prioritized way. It defines your primary message (lead message) and arranges supporting messages (claims or benefits) underneath it. This ensures that whether someone encounters your brand in an advertisement, on your website, or through your packaging, they’re walking away with the same core understanding.

The importance of a messaging hierarchy lies in its power to:

• Create consistency across multiple platforms and audiences
• Ensure the most important value proposition is front and center
• Allow teams to align on messaging strategy across marketing, sales, and product
• Improve message recall, helping consumers retain what matters most

Without a hierarchy, brands often suffer from unclear or scattered communication. Teams might be excited about multiple benefits or claims and end up trying to say everything at once. The result? Confused messaging that lacks focus. A well-structured hierarchy gives marketing messages a rhythm – providing one clear idea first, followed by secondary details that support it.

Lead Message vs. Supporting Claims

The lead message is the headline of your story – the one idea you want consumers to remember. Supporting claims act as proof points or motivators that give the primary idea more meaning or credibility. For example, if your lead message is “Our snack is the healthiest on the shelf,” supporting claims might include “made with only 5 ingredients” or “contains 50% less sugar than competitors.”

Getting this structure right is critical not just for creative execution, but also for long-term brand equity. When consumers consistently hear clear, reinforced messages, they remember – and they trust.

Why It’s Essential at Every Stage

Whether you’re launching a new product or refreshing an older one, a strong messaging structure helps guide everything from packaging copy to ad campaigns. But it’s not just for launches. Over time, effective message hierarchies allow brands to scale, expand into new markets, and stay consistent while adapting to different formats.

That’s why building a message hierarchy isn’t just a marketing task – it’s a core part of your insight strategy. And when you’re using tools like Zappi to test and evaluate messaging, a clear hierarchy helps you focus on what data matters most so you can translate findings into action.

Zappi is an agile market research platform that helps teams test marketing messages quickly with real consumers. It’s a useful tool for evaluating how different statements perform – helping you identify which message resonates most as a lead message and which ones work better as supporting claims.

But using Zappi effectively requires more than running a quick survey. To truly build a message hierarchy using Zappi, teams need to approach the process strategically, from input design to interpreting output.

Step 1: Define Your Messaging Options Clearly

Before launching a Zappi message test, ensure your list of messages is clear, distinct, and captures a range of communication angles – emotional, functional, benefit-driven, or proof-based. For example, a new beverage brand might test messages like:

• “Naturally energizes you without the crash”
• “Powered by real fruit and adaptogens”
• “Tastes better than leading energy drinks”

This mix allows Zappi to help you understand which messages spark attention, drive relevance, boost purchase intent, or are most memorable.

Step 2: Analyze the Data – Don’t Just Choose the ‘#1 Winner’

One common mistake in DIY market research is looking only for the “top-ranked” message. While it’s helpful to know which message scored highest, that doesn’t automatically make it the best lead message. Zappi data analysis should look beyond scores to consider:

• Message clarity: Do consumers understand it without explanation?
• Relevancy and emotional connection: Does it align with what your target cares about?
• Complementary roles: Which messages back up or reinforce the lead message’s claim?

Sometimes, a message that scored second or third overall may serve better as a lead because it creates a foundation, while others make strong claim-level support. The key is interpreting Zappi results within your marketing context.

Step 3: Sequence Your Messaging for Impact

Once you identify promising lead and support messages, sequence them in a way that tells a clear story – one that flows from headline to proof point. Think of your messaging like a funnel: capture attention first, then build credibility and action.

For example, if "Naturally energizes you without the crash" tested well for emotional resonance, that could be your lead. Then follow with "Powered by real fruit and adaptogens" and "Zero added sugar" as supporting claims to reinforce the benefit and provide logic for the promise.

How Experts Help Add Strategy and Context

While Zappi is a powerful DIY market research tool, turning outputs into strategy requires experience. That’s where SIVO’s On Demand Talent comes in. Our insight professionals understand how to use Zappi for message testing, interpret complex data beyond the surface, and guide your team to a clear messaging framework you can activate.

If your team is short on time, skill gaps, or you simply want a second set of eyes on Zappi data analysis, On Demand Talent offers flexible support – from one-time guidance to deeper strategic partnerships. It’s not just about using the tool – it’s about using it wisely to drive better business results.

Interpreting Zappi Outputs: Lead Messages vs. Supportive Claims

When using the Zappi tool for marketing message testing, one of the most critical steps is distinguishing between lead messages and supportive claims. Zappi provides a wealth of data – from recall and relevance to emotional impact – but it's how you interpret those results that determines the effectiveness of your messaging hierarchy.

What is a lead message in marketing? Simply put, it's the primary idea or benefit you want your audience to remember. It sets the tone and anchors the rest of your communications. Supportive claims are secondary messages that provide evidence, detail, or credibility to strengthen the lead message.

How to find lead messages using Zappi data: After conducting message testing on the Zappi platform, look at which messages consistently score highest for metrics like purchase intent, uniqueness, alignment with brand, and emotional connection. These high-performing messages are typically ideal candidates for lead positions in your hierarchy.

Characteristics of strong lead messages:

• They stand out: high uniqueness scores compared to norms in your industry
• They resonate emotionally: provoke emotions like trust, joy, or excitement
• They drive action: demonstrate clear potential to influence consumer decision-making

Once you've identified your potential lead message(s), it's time to look at supportive claims. Zappi outputs can help you pinpoint which secondary messages boost credibility, offer additional customer benefits, or reduce friction for conversion. These might include stats, product features, or partner endorsements – anything that makes the lead message more believable and appealing.

For example, a (fictional) food startup testing messages for a plant-based frozen meal found that their lead message – “Delicious comfort food that’s better for you and the planet” – consistently ranked highest in recall and emotional connection. Supportive claims such as “12g of plant-based protein” and “Certified carbon-neutral” ranked lower as standalone messages but helped reinforce the lead message when used in combination.

Understanding the role each message plays in your hierarchy helps you avoid a common mistake: treating all messages as equals. With Zappi, the insights are there – you just need to know how to read them within the context of your brand story and marketing goals.

Carefully interpreting your message testing outputs ensures the right sequencing and delivery strategy – guiding the consumer journey from attention to action.

Common Pitfalls When Structuring Messaging without Expert Help

DIY market research platforms like Zappi are incredibly powerful tools, enabling businesses of all sizes to conduct quick, cost-effective message testing. But without experienced insight professionals guiding the process, companies can stumble in how they interpret the data – or even worse, fail to build an effective message hierarchy that converts.

Here are a few common mistakes marketers make when structuring messaging without expert help:

1. Misinterpreting the Data

Beginners often take Zappi's top-performing messages at face value, assuming the message with the highest score is the best to lead with. However, a message might rank highly for recall, but lack influence on purchase intent or emotional resonance. It takes experience to balance the scores, understand their context, and align them with business objectives.

2. Overloading the Message Hierarchy

Trying to include too many messages in a campaign dilutes your impact. Without strategic framing, even supportive claims can clutter communication rather than enhance it. Experienced messaging strategists know how to prioritize and trim down to what truly matters to your audience.

3. Following Internal Bias

Teams sometimes push messages that perform poorly in Zappi testing just because they align with internal opinions or product-focused language. Without a clear, objective perspective, it's easy to fall into the trap of 'telling what we want to say' rather than 'sharing what the consumer needs to hear.'

4. Ignoring Audience Segmentation

Not all audiences respond to messages the same way. Zappi allows for message performance across consumer segments, but without skilled analysis, it’s easy to overlook insights like which messages resonate better with specific personas or demographics.

5. Sequencing Mistakes

Even if you've identified the right lead and supportive messages, poor sequencing can cost you. A misaligned order can create confusion, lower engagement, or cause your brand story to fall flat. Experts help shape the flow so each message builds naturally on the one before.

While Zappi is user-friendly and built for speed, the data doesn't automatically translate into strategy. Messaging is both an art and a science – and having a second set of seasoned, objective eyes can help avoid costly missteps. Insight professionals ensure your marketing messages are grounded in real consumer data and designed for business success.

How On Demand Talent Helps Maximize DIY Tools Like Zappi

With DIY platforms like Zappi growing in popularity, many companies find themselves at a crossroads: they have access to powerful consumer data, but lack the internal expertise to extract its full value. That’s where SIVO’s On Demand Talent comes in.

Our On Demand Talent offering connects businesses with seasoned insights professionals who know how to translate research findings into high-impact marketing strategies. These aren't freelancers or temporary hires – they are experienced, on-demand experts who can embed into your team quickly and start delivering results right away.

Here’s how On Demand Talent elevates your Zappi efforts:

Tactical Support with Strategic Insight

Whether you’re running message testing for the first time or refining an existing hierarchy, On Demand Talent can step in to guide your team through setup, data analysis, and decision-making. They ensure the testing aligns with your objectives – not just generating scores, but surfacing the real story behind the numbers.

Teaching While Doing

Unlike consultants who hand you a report and move on, our professionals often work alongside your internal team, transferring expertise and upskilling staff in real time. This helps you build long-term capability with DIY research tools like the Zappi platform while solving urgent needs today.

Closing Skill Gaps on the Spot

If your team is missing the bandwidth or specific experience to interpret Zappi outputs – such as decoding emotional associations, balancing message pairings, or understanding audience segmentation – our talent fills that gap rapidly. No lengthy recruitment process required.

More than Just Efficiency – Smarter Strategy

Zappi makes market research faster, but On Demand Talent makes it smarter. Our experts don’t just read the results – they act as objective partners, helping shape your message hierarchy based on both data and understanding of consumer behavior, not guesswork or gut feel.

One (fictional) CPG brand brought in an On Demand professional during a Zappi study and quickly unlocked insights that reshaped their entire campaign direction. Instead of going to market with the message they ‘thought’ was strongest, they relied on tested evidence curated through expert guidance, leading to a more resonant and effective campaign.

As research and marketing demands grow faster and more complex, the combination of flexible tools and expert talent is no longer optional – it’s a competitive advantage. On Demand Talent gives you the expertise you need, when and where you need it, ensuring your investment in DIY market research pays off for the long haul.