Touchdown Tactics: Feature Prioritization Techniques for Market Research Excellence

Are you a sports fan?

Super Bowl 2025. Kansas City Chiefs going for the 3-peat. Favored to beat the Philadelphia Eagles. And that’s because all the statistics showed the Chiefs were superior in so many ways so they should win. Right?

Of 10 critical statistical measurements summarized by ChatGPT (offense, defense, special teams, turnovers, etc.), the Chiefs and Eagles each had an advantage in 5 of them. Nearly equal statistically, the Chiefs were made a 1.5-point favorite to win the game. Was that a good analysis?

Offense is the glamorous part of the NFL, and the Chiefs had better offensive numbers than the Eagles. Not to mention their famous quarterback, tight end and his girlfriend, the most famous fan in the world. Many pundits simply said “I won’t bet against Patrick Mahomes.”  Many fans ran with this kind of “gut analysis” and bet on the Chiefs.

But coaches have been screaming “Defense wins Championships” since the leather ball was nearly round back in the day. Analysis showed the Eagles defensive statistics for the season overwhelmed those of the Chiefs. Yet they began the game as underdogs. Eagles’ backers could point to the defensive discrepancy as the reason they were betting on their team.

Of course, the only stat that truly matters is the final score.

Why to use the right statistical analysis to aid decisions

The Eagles backers were rewarded. The Eagles’ defense dominated the vaunted Chief’s offense. I’m not trying to make a case for “Defense wins Games”, though in this case it did. This is kind of a long-winded example of using the right statistical analysis to aid decisions.

In market research we seemingly measure everything, some metrics in multiple ways. Companies that provide products/services are relying on their market research partners to turn numbers into insights, insights into business guidance. But what should we measure to provide the right guidance?

Let’s consider a marketer whose product/service has many benefits to offer consumers. Which of those benefits should be touted in advertising?  Many marketers have a gut feeling on which benefit to tout.

Chiefs? Eagles?

This is why most successful decisions come from consumer insights guidance. However, communication research can identify many “numbers.”  Traditionally, surveys would be run to identify the importance of each benefit in a consumer’s decision process. Each attribute would be rated individually resulting in a series of means or ratings to compare across the benefits.

In most cases, such comparisons show little discrimination. Think of buying a car—you are likely to rate engine size very high importance on your decision. You are also likely to rate high quality tires as also being very important. Individually, they might rate the same importance to the decision. But do they influence your purchase decision with the same weight?

Using Benefit Prioritization Technique over Individual Benefit Importance

Rather than measuring individual benefit importance, how about identifying their head-to-head decision impact via a prioritization technique. Instead of a list of non-discriminating benefits, techniques such as Max Diff or Bracket^TM (see white paper “A Dynamic Approach to Feature Prioritization – TRC Insights) can provide a hierarchical ranking of the benefits to allow the marketer to understand which makes the more impactful message based on consumer choice. This can provide guidance on how to build multiple messages into an effective advertising campaign.

This is one aspect of how communication research can bring focus and guidance to your marketing efforts. Of course, you could simply pay a lot of money for that tight end’s popular girlfriend to be your spokesperson. Oh, but how do you know she is the right celebrity to use with your target consumers? Time for some market research help.

And, keep in mind the only real stat that matters is the sale.