In false advertising and consumer fraud cases, consumer perception of claims made by a manufacturer in the marketplace and in marketing communications is often a common issue. Using consumer survey evidence to illustrate this can be indispensable in winning your trademark litigation, particularly when the rest of the evidence is unclear. The experts at Keegan & Donato Consulting can help.
Keegan & Donato Consulting provides service to attorneys practicing in federal and state courts, before arbitration panels, the TTAB, the NAD, and other specialty venues. Principals Mark Keegan and Tony Donato offer clients more than 30 combined years of proven survey methodologies, deep operational insight, and broad industry experience.
We belong to the International Trademark Association (INTA), the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), the American Marketing Association (AMA), tthe Association for Consumer Research (ACR), and ESOMAR, the leading global association for market, social and opinion researchers. The firm is also Qualtrics certified.
Testing Consumer Perception
Manufacturers frequently promote their products by highlighting the product attributes on their packaging and in their advertising. Highlighted attributes range from ingredients to efficacy, technical specifications, performance, and more, and is a means of communication between buyer and seller that can have a strong influence on the consumer’s purchase decision.
We can test consumer perception through consumer research. In addition to gauging consumer perception of products or services, consumer surveys can also be a useful tool for brand holders who want to evaluate the buying habits of their target market; test the marketplace for a new brand name, logo or idea; and other key marketing issues.
Consumer research is focused on collecting empirical data from relevant consumers through methodologically-sound, scientific, industry-accepted principles of survey research. Such research gathers data from consumers to determine how they understand the relevant issues in the case. These results typically are projectable to the broader population of relevant consumers in the market.
Keegan & Donato Consulting has designed and executed many studies to determine how consumers in a particular market perceive a marketing claim and the extent to which those consumer perceptions align with the realities of the product being marketed.
For example, we have conducted studies in a number of recent cases involving “all natural” and/or “100% natural” product claims. These studies examined how consumers perceive the natural claims and to what extent, if at all, the natural claims have impacted the consumer purchase decision.
Call Keegan & Donato Consulting at (914) 967-9421 to explore how using survey evidence to illustrate consumer perception in the marketplace could help bolster your case. Through our research, we have provided our clients with reliable empirical data regarding consumer perceptions of the key claims driving their litigation.