Cach lam concept

Winning Concepts
Habits for Writing
Effective Concepts

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Introduction

In concept development work
we need to have a particular mindset so we can work effectively

KEEP ON IMPROVING
EACH CONCEPT
 Write it well
 Make sure it
is understood
 Edit it
 Rework it

MAKE THE COMPLEX
EASY TO UNDERSTAND
 Focus on the reader
 Make it easy
 Less is more

FIND A SPARRING
PARTNER

 Find someone who can
give you their views
 Use them to check
comprehension

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007

KEEP ON LEARNING
CONCEPT WRITING SKILL
 Practice, practice, practice!
 Learn from your mistakes
 Celebrate success!
 Aim to be best not just
average

FIND YOUR OWN WAY
OF WORKING
 Solo vs. in a pair vs. in a 3
 Away from office
distractions


Introduction

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Introduction

Key Components of a Concept

Headline

Statement summarising the most important thoughts in
the concept

Need

An unmet need for consumers, reflecting the
Consumer Insight

Benefit

The benefit that addresses the need. The benefit may
be rational and / or emotional.

Reason to
Believe

Rational information that gives credibility to the benefit

Critical Details

Any further details that build a complete story around
the idea e.g. visual, pack sizes etc

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Introduction

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Introduction

How to write better concepts
HEADLINE



Write headlines that hook the reader

NEED



Build a need statement that is
translated from a strong Consumer
Insight

BENEFIT



Create a benefit that meets the need
and attracts the consumer

REASON TO
BELIEVE



Support the benefit and make it
credible

DIFFERENTIATED



Create concepts that are different
enough to bother testing

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Introduction

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Introduction

Concept Writing Checklist
Reflect the idea in an exciting way

1
•

Does the idea tap into the Brand Challenge and Consumer Insight?

•

Does the concept reflect the original idea?

•

Does the concept excite you?

•

Will it excite the consumer target and provide a response?

Include all the key components

2
•

Does the concept include all 5 Key Components in the right order to tell a story?

•

Is the ‘story’ focussed?

Be differentiated

3
•

Is the concept differentiated from any other product the target consumer uses?

•

If you are testing more than one concept, are they sufficiently differentiated from each other?

Be single-minded

4
•

Is there a clear benefit?

Use consumer language

5
•

Is the concept written in language that could be easily understood by the consumer? i.e. not
technical, not too many words? Does it use consumer language?

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007

 or  or ?


Introduction

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007

Headlines

How should a “Headline” be written?
7 good habits

1.

Write it last…… to summarise the concept you’ve written

2.

A short and simple sentence written in consumer
language

3.

Include the brand and product name

4.

If the product is new say so clearly

5.

Base the headline on the benefit

6.

Ensure it hooks the reader without using tagline /creative
language

7.

Treat it as if it was the only thing a consumer would
remember

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Headlines

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Needs

How should a “Need” be written?
7 habits

1.

Use first person (e.g. I) to help us get closer to consumers and
obtain a higher involvement when the consumer agrees with the
need

2.

You must be careful not to patronise or alienate consumers or
risk they will not read on

3.

Should set up a consumer problem, opportunity or aspiration the
product benefit will address

4.

Avoid complementing your competitors

5.

Avoid marketing or ad agency jargon or making taglines

6.

Don’t denigrate the brand

7.

If the insight can still work, given all the above, use it!

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Needs

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Strong Benefits

How should a “Benefit” be written?
7 habits

1.
2.

Use consumer language

3.

Be single-minded. It is better to stand for one thing clearly than
many things unclearly

4.

If you have a differentiating functional benefit (e.g. faster pain
relief) use this

5.

If you feel the consumer would say “so what?” to your benefit
consider a more emotional end benefit building off your
functional one (for help see the Stepping Stone Tool)

6.
7.

Avoid adding “and it also . . .”. You will stop being single-minded

Ensure the benefit you offer addresses the ‘need’ you have set
up

You can still be single-minded by reassuring on a category
benefit but focusing on your differentiator. E.g. the effective
antiperspirant without the stinging

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Strong Benefits

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Strong Benefits

TOOL: Stepping Stones
create emotional end benefits from functional ones. Just ask
‘so what does than mean for me?’/‘ ‘why does that matter?’
•

For our new product concepts a functional benefit will usually suffice in
early stages of development

•

You may need to add in an emotional end benefit to something
functional where the functional benefit is generic
• For example ‘Get noticed with 100% more eyelash volume’

• The functional benefit should be the start point of the emotional end benefit

Example 1

Driest nappy

A
Example 2

Faster pain
relief

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007

Most
comfortable
baby

Happy baby

Shows you are
a good mother

B

C

D

To restore you

to your normal
way of feeling

So you can get
on with your life

You can make
the most of
your life


Strong Benefits

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Strong Benefits

TOOL : Uniqueness Matrix
just
jump
fromidea
product
idea to
benefit.
• Don’t
Around
your
product
brainstorm

possible
features, benefits (functional
and emotional)
place them on this grid.
Consider
your and
options.
•

You may choose to create a number of different concepts based on your
outputs
Importance to
target consumers

Strongest
area of
distinctivity

High

Medium

Avoid writing
concepts on
topics out
here!

Low

Low

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007

Medium

High

Uniqueness vs. Competitor

Feature #1


Strong Benefits

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Reason to Believe

How should “Reason to Believe” be written?
7 habits

1.

Wherever possible use consumer language and avoid too much
jargon

2.
3.

Prioritise! It should not be a long list of features

4.
5.

Should provide an opportunity for sustainable differentiation

6.

Make it believable and reflective of a consumer belief about how
things work or could work. Believability is a major driver of
purchase intent

7.

It should be supportable from a technical / regulatory
perspective

Must have clear connection to the benefit and not just
disconnected facts

Ensure it reassures the consumer on how a product works [if
this might become an issue]

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Reason to Believe

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007

Differentiation Between Concepts

How can I make my concepts more
differentiated from each other?
7 Habits

1.
2.
3.

Consider addressing a different ‘consumer insight’ per concept
Consider developing a different ‘product idea’ per concept
Consider creating very different ‘benefits’ to test e.g.:
•

4.

‘Helps you feel better faster’ vs ‘Restores your natural energy’

Consider creating very different ‘reasons to believe’ to test e.g.:
•

‘Works with your own defences to fight the virus from within’

•

‘Contains only trusted herbs and minerals’

5.

Avoid testing just minor executional words in concepts.
Resolve these in work before quantitative concept research (e.g.
in focus groups)

6.

Have someone disconnected from the project complete the
Differentiated Concept Tester tool. Do they see differences?

7.

Be honest! If you were a consumer reading these would you
notice a difference?

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Differentiation

© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007


Differentiation Between Concepts

TOOL : Differentiated Concept Tester
• Draft and review your concepts. Complete this matrix. Use ‘strategic’
language not the ‘executional’ language you might have used in the
concept and then ask:
1. Is there lots of repetition in the grid?

(If so your concepts may need more differentiation from each other).
2. Are the concepts truly different of just minor variations of the same themes?

Concept 1

Need
Benefit
Reason to
Believe
© Oxford Strategic Marketing Limited 2007

Concept 2

Concept 3