Consumer Segmentation/ Message Testing

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Marketing Strategy that Works

A consumer segmentation strategy built on solid research is key to marketing and advertising that works. 

There is nothing more important than matching the right message with the right consumer. PortMA’s consumer segmentation research identifies consumers who are waiting to hear the story your brand has to tell.

PortMA takes a two-phase approach to most consumer segmentation research studies.  

  • Phase 1: Discover what we don’t know
  • Phase 2: Validate the prevalence and importance of what we learned

Phase One: Qualitative Discovery

The first phase is about discovery.  It’s about discovering the range of attitudes, perspectives, habits, and beliefs held by a broad definition of the consumer target. 

This is done with a series of in-depth consumer interviews where PortMA works with your project team to recruit, schedule, interview, record, transcribe, code, analyze and deliver a detailed report.

This Phase One reporting results in a set of consumer profiles.  These profiles and their associated key drivers are then validated in the second phase with a general market survey. 

Phase Two: Quantitative Validation

The Phase Two general market survey provides for a statistically valid measure of profile frequencies in the general population and which behavioral drivers are most significantly linked to purchase/ adoption.

The PortMA team combines a keen understanding of marketing with extensive experience supporting advertising agencies and brands.  We deliver our reports via in-depth briefing, often in-person, to walk the full team through the research findings and their implications to the marketing team. Always tying findings and implications to the learning objectives that caused the research to be commissioned in the first place.

And when we’re done, we don’t disappear. PortMA analysts are always available after delivery of the final version of any report to provide ad-hoc analysis, briefings, or supplemental reporting to assure that the team derives the value from the research that was intended.

Message / Concept Testing:

Building Winning Creative

Your marketing communication strategy is rooted in a presentation of the product benefits, features, and “reason to believe.” 

There are a number of different ways to present this message. Video, imagery, and text are all common and should be tested.

PortMA makes use of national consumer panels to test marketing communications video, images, and text. We work with you and your creative team to take a core message, develop two to three variations, and test consumer response to these messages with an online survey. 

PortMA’s unique approach to message testing gives you not only a rank ordering of which concepts/ imagery performed better but also tells you why. We can deconstruct the individual components of a message and report on what will work and what won’t.


“We can deconstruct the individual components of a message and report on what will work and what won’t.”


Our marketing communication strategy development research services provide you and your marketing creative team with feedback that is used to refine messaging and ensure a more effective campaign. The research results provide you with fodder for split-testing and additional creative direction.

To learn more about our approach to consumer segmentation, please contact us at PortMA today.