Case Study · Three MaxDiff exercises with benefit-to-feature association mapping
Ranking features, benefits and barriers for a premium connected fitness brand
BrandSpark ran three MaxDiff exercises in one survey, on 17 product features, 17 consumer benefits and 17 purchase barriers, and linked features to benefits. The result cut a long feature list to 5 focal features, and the client adopted it as the reference for later positioning and campaign work.
The Challenge
Asked directly, a buyer of a premium fitness product rates almost every feature important, which produces a flat ranking. The client needed features tied to the benefits they deliver and the objections they remove, and the research had to be able to contradict the client's own hypothesis.
Our Approach
MaxDiff forces a choice between items, so it resists the flattening a rating scale invites. Results were reported as share of choice against a fair-share threshold of 5.9%, the score every item would get if all 17 were equally important. A separate association exercise linked each feature to the benefits consumers believed it created, and the benefits grouped into 7 territories.
What the Research Found
- ›Personalization was the leading differentiator, followed by the adaptive-weight capability.
- ›Several features the client had been communicating heavily fell below the fair-share threshold.
- ›The risk-free home trial scored 5.0% as a feature, 10th of 17 and below fair share, yet it directly answered one of the top barriers (needing to try the equipment before buying, 7.8%). We recommended keeping it as objection handling. An importance-only read would have cut it.
Outcome
The deliverable mapped 5 focal features to the benefits they deliver and the barriers they remove, with recommended wording, as a three-stage message sequence across the purchase funnel. It became the client's reference for subsequent positioning and campaign work.