Creating Winning

Value Statements Presenters:

Harro Koot, Philips

Robin de Rooij, SKIM

Philips Lighting’s performance in terms of sustainability is very good, driven by constant innovations to create cleaner, more energy efficient lighting solutions.

However, Philips is not getting the recognition for the efforts it puts in, as perception of sustainability is relatively low, putting it in the ‘silent hero’ segment of the market.

Philips would like to increase this perception by communicating on sustainability in a way that appeals to its customers and provide guidance in innovations in those areas that are perceived to be sustainable.

In an internal creative workshop, Philips employees from many different backgrounds got together to write potential value statements to articulate efforts in sustainability to its customers.

The output was a huge set of statements covering a range of benefits. However, the team had limited knowledge of what makes a successful value statement and did not know how to cut back statements to get to the best one(s)

Philips wanted to perform a quantitative study with SKIM to test among its (potential) customers which statements would work best, but testing all the materials was impossible.

The challenge was therefore to use a structured approach to get to the best shortlist of statements to test!

Category D Category E Category F

Category G Category H Category I

Category A Category B Category C

At SKIM, we firstly clustered different claims together, grouping recurring topics in the long list, such as ‘energy saving’ and ‘reduction of harmful materials’. Bringing some order to the chaos.

Next, we identified the most relevant articulations in these area’s together with Philips: 1) Endorsement, 2) Benefit / Performance 3) Heritage. With heritage being particularly close to the heart of many Philips employees.

Category D Category E Category F

Category G Category H Category I

Category A Category B Category C

This way we knew we could cover all the important (benefit) areas that Philips wanted to know about and provide structure in the results of the quantitative test that would follow later, for a better understanding of what works.

Within each subset of statements, however, we needed to cut out a lot of statements and make sure we only tested the very best, without risking removing statements that may have a lot of potential.

Category D Category E Category F

Category G Category H Category I

Category A Category B Category C

To help us distinguish the good from the bad, we use the guidelines to good value statements we’ve determined through a meta-analysis across many studies we’ve performed on value statements across categories.

By checking whether claims met all the requirements for good value statements as defined in our guidelines, and adjusting value statements where needed, we ensure we ended up with a very strong shortlist.

Rather than give these guidelines away, we would like to ask you to put yourself in our shoes and pretend you’re the consultant. Which value statements would you say have the most potential for Philips in the market?

Value

statement 1

Value

statement 1

We will show you 2 different value statements at a time and ask you which one you think is best, then we will reveal which one would perform best based on our guidelines and explain in more detail why.

High quality light,

low energy use

Designed

for quality,

sustainable

lighting

Which of the following statements do you think is best? Why would you expect this statement to perform better?

High quality light,

low energy use

Designed

for quality,

sustainable

lighting

Based on our experience, we would say the value statement on the left would probably perform best.

Promise Value

Why? This statement performs best because of the clear promise of value to the customer. “Designed for Quality” does not directly imply that the product is of high quality, while low energy use is far more clear in the value it promises than “Sustainable lighting”. The best value statements are able to deliver value in multiple areas that are seemingly contradictory, offering a solution to a dilemma.

Reduce your

lighting costs by

up to 80%

Reduces your

lighting costs

responsibly

Which of the following statements do you think is best? Why would you expect this statement to perform better?

Reduce your

lighting costs by

up to 80%

Reduces your

lighting costs

responsibly

Based on our experience, we would say the value statement on the left would probably perform best.

Be specific

Why? This statement performs best because it is more specific in the value that it delivers. A great way to be specific is by putting a number to it, although you should be careful to keep it credible. However, alternative ways to make the value more specific – for instance by painting a very clear picture of the desired situation and making it come to life for the customer – can be just as effective.

The leader in

energy saving

lamps

Saves more

energy than any

other lamp

Which of the following statements do you think is best? Why would you expect this statement to perform better?

The leader in

energy saving

lamps

Saves more

energy than any

other lamp

Based on our experience, we would say the value statement on the right would probably perform best.

Set yourself apart

Why? This statement performs best because of the way it sets itself apart. The best way to do so is not by just saying you are the best, but by articulating the value that you can deliver that another can’t. Stating superiority over other brands may be considered bashing, while comparing to your own products can be seen as weakness. The most effective way of really stating superiority outright, is by comparing to the category as a whole.

Avoid pitfalls Be positive

Avoid Humor Be Respectful

Avoid Jargon

Finally, there are a number of pitfalls to avoid when writing value statements. A negative connotation, difficult language and a condescending tone can completely drown out all the value you might be able to offer. And although there is a place and time for humor, value statements are not this place, as they need to clearly communicate the value of your product or brand to drive choice.

Set yourself

apart

Be specific Avoid pitfalls

Promise

value

We were able to use these four major drivers of successful value statements as a guideline and a structure to determine which statements on Philips sustainability to test with (potential) customers, and which ones were unlikely to succeed anyway.

This framework allowed us to be confident in getting from our long list of statements to a short list that covered all of the most important areas for Philips, while adhering to the needs of good value statements.

This in turn ensured that Philips was confident with the list of value statements and the fact that we were able to determine what would be the “best of the best” in our follow-up quantitative study.

High quality light, low energy use

Saves more energy than any other lamp

90% of consumers prefer energy saving lamps

from this brand

Reduce your lighting costs

by up to 80%

The quantitative study we performed allowed Philips to set up best practices when communicating about lighting sustainability for all their country teams, to ensure communication on the most relevant aspects of sustainability.

For Philips, a traditionally inside-out company, heavily innovation and R&D driven, this has been a small step on its journey towards becoming more customer focused

By listening to the aspects and innovations in sustainability that truly matter to the customer, Philips is becoming more of an outside-in company that can then communicate and continue its developments in areas that are most relevant to its customers.

Drop by at our booth E261

to find out how to optimise

your communication

Presenters:

Harro Koot, Philips

Robin de Rooij, SKIM