http://www.bestsellersworld.com/2012/01/03/marketing-concepts-that-win-save-time-money-and-work-crafting-concepts-right-the-first-time-by-martha-guidry/

1. Be aware of the author(s) – In any situation, it is important to know who actually wrote the concept.  If you happen to be standing in front of the author, this is probably not the time to reel off about how badly the concept is written.   Similarly, if the concept was written by the most senior marketer of the brand/business, be sensitive to the politics within the audience – even if the person is not present in the room.
2. Be knowledgeable – Your advice is only as good as your expertise.  You need to be informed about what makes a concept strong.  As much as I’d like to say that there are great references out there, I had to write a book because I couldn’t find one.  So, yes, that’s a shameless plug for Marketing Concepts that Win! Honestly though, I believe it will materially improve your knowledge and skills.  Buy a copy at Amazon.com or visit my blog at ConceptTalk.com and peruse the articles.  Both will allow you to make better, more confident recommendations.
3. Ask “Are you open to suggestions for improvement?” – Chances are they’ll say  “yes.”  In my experience, most folks are receptive when asked it they’d like free advice.  Wouldn’t you be?  In the highly unlikely event they say “no” you can’t do much so move on.  Generally, if you are in a qualitative setting, an unreceptive client will find that the consumer won’t hold back – if they don’t get the concept, they will let you know – so, eventually, you’ll be able to help make the concepts more effective.
4.  Ask “What’s the big idea here?” – Fundamentally, this is what a concept is all about – a single-minded (hopefully) big idea that will sell lots of products or services.  If the folks you are working with can’t articulate it OR have different ideas, you will have the opportunity to facilitate a discussion to move toward suggestions for improvement.
5. Isolate elements & discuss – And, finally, a build on the previous point.  Try to isolate various concept elements and talk about how they do or do not support the “big idea.”  You can facilitate a discussion about key elements:  the benefit, the accepted consumer believe, the reason to believe, and the headline.  While a concept is all about the entire communication, the individual pieces must make sense, or collectively they don’t stand a chance.

Hopefully, this will provide you with a starting point when you’re faced with lackluster concepts.  Again, every situation is unique, but a bit of awareness, knowledge, and tact can take you a long way!  Remember that a change of perspective can be a good thing, and always stay positive.  Good luck!

The Concept Queen signs her book, Marketing Concepts that Win!, for Tom Rich at the QRCA Conference in Vegas

Here are a few ways to try to help the client become more objective with their concepts when going qualitative.  In a perfect world, you’d get this fixed before entering research, but sometimes you just have to let the consumer tell it to the client (as noted in the last bullet point).

• Listen to the concepts with eyes closed – By cutting off the sense of sight, one often listens more carefully.  When the concepts are read aloud without seeing the words, similarities and redundancies tend to pop more easily.  Adjustments can be made, and the team is in a better place.
• Template analysis – Have each concept reduced to a simple template.  This template shown below takes the concept out of the typical presentation order and helps the client to be more objective to each idea.  The exercise can often help the team refine the similarities and see if the concepts are truly different.

• Convince Who?	Target Audience
  About What?	Benefit
  Context?  Issue?	Accepted Consumer Belief (ACB)
  Why Believe?	Reason to Believe (RTB)

• Ask all the backroom clients to write down the main idea for each concept  – They would, of course, do this independently on individual sheets of paper.  Collect and collate the papers by concept.  Give each stack of main ideas for a single concept to an individual  (preferably someone who did not write it) to review.  Then the learning is “taught back” by the person reviewing the main ideas.  If they fall on top of each other, you probably have a problem.
• Let the target audience tell you – If the answer to the uniqueness question is “no” the consumer is trying to tell you something.  As well, if you get lots of comments such as “sounds like the last one” or “I’ve heard this before,” then you probably have some work to do.

As a consultant, it is important to add as much value as possible to ensure your research is working as hard as possible.  As a client, be open to these types of approaches because, in the long run, it will often save you a lot of time when you are helped in being more objective.

Here are four primary problems with this syndrome:

• Hard to visualize the end benefit – When a concept has too many adjectives it becomes almost impossible to visualize the end result. In our example, the consumer probably would not know whether this really was about the way her hands feel, look, or both. In addition, how you would picture touchable may be completely different than showing soft to the touch. Would we really be able to discern which adjectives are really driving the interest? In addition, the use of “confident” and “beautiful” might add even more confusion, as this is an internalized feeling rather than either of the physical attributes already mentioned.

• Lose the primary idea - Concepts struggling with overuse of descriptors often keep the consumer from grasping the main idea. The primary promise of the product was to nourish the hands, which, for the most part, gets lost beneath the sea of adjectives. You really want to communicate the consumer benefit as succinctly as possible. While the adjectives may help define that benefit, you don’t want to get carried away.

• Receive a false positive – Building on the previous explanation, your concept might score amazingly well because of all the description, yet the primary idea is not of importance. The concept “won” for the wrong reasons, so when this concept gets moved into development, it may turn out that the approach is not that compelling. A lot of time and money could be wasted in this particular scenario.

• Difficult to create copy strategy – And finally, moving from concept identification (the concept) to execution (the copy/advertising) may be extremely difficult. An advertising brief would highlight the major areas to showcase in the copy. When adjectives drive the choice, how will the agency be able to determine what choices should be made? Typically, a consumer can remember three things about a commercial. When we have eight-plus adjectives AND a benefit, some areas will need to be dropped for focus. Guaranteed, different consumers like different descriptors in the concept–after all it was a “kitchen sink” concept. Choices made for the brief will likely be subjective, and suddenly areas that drove interest will no longer present.

So the next time you write or receive concepts chock-full of descriptors, try to drop your adjectives down to just a few relevant ones. If you feel some words are still essential, then write a few different concepts. In the case above, I would have divided this up into three concepts to start out with: 1) visual benefits, 2) physical benefits, and 3) emotional benefits. Understand the drives of these core ideas, and then pick the right adjectives to fit the desired concept area. Carefully chosen adjectives will help your concepts rock!

I’ve been using color-coded cards for years to solicit qualitative feedback on concepts and other subjective stimuli.  Now, these are available to you.  While simple in concept, the cards are incredibly helpful.  Colored like a traffic light – green = yes, yellow = maybe, red = no – you simply have your participants hold up a card to show their reaction.  These cards make it easy to:  1) show how individuals feel about the stimuli; 2) helps to minimize negative comments from influencing those more positively predisposed, and 3) works with all ages and in any language as color and shape are universal.  Cards will be ready for shipping the first week in October. This is one of those simple ideas that makes your life as a moderator and/or facilitator so my easier!!!  You’ll wonder how you lived without them.  www.YesMaybeNoCards.com