Case study · Jan to Feb 2026

one promise,
four meanings.

Nua built its brand on two words: “Zero Irritation.” We set out to find what women actually hear when they read them, and how to make the promise land.

Business Strategy Lab, Mesa School of Business · Consumer research and positioning

Nua deck cover: strengthening the Zero Irritation promise

15offline interviews

94survey responses

88%A/B preference

Top 5of 20 teams

The question

How do women actually read “Zero Irritation”, and what would make the promise land?

How we dug in

Before judging the claim, we studied the buyer:

How do people buy period care?
Why do they switch brands, or not?
How do they think about periods and discomfort?
How do they understand comfort, safety and claims?
Where do Nua and “Zero Irritation” fit?

Shubh in a planning session in front of a whiteboard with the research and pitch plan — Planning the research, interviews to pitch.

Desk researchcategory and competitor claims

Interviewsoffline, on buying and lived experience

Surveyspread through QR codes and sharing

An expertwho has taught 400+ students on the cycle

One promise, four meanings

We asked women what “Zero Irritation” means. Four groups heard four different promises:

38%Literal: no itching, rashes or reactions at all

27%Relative: better than other padsbetter than other pads but not completely zero

21%Marketing language, an exaggerationno product can guarantee zero irritation

14%Not suredepends on the body

Not a product problem. A semantic gap: the same words promised different things to different women.

What else we found

59%had skin issuesIrritation is accepted as normal

Most women had itching, rashes or redness, but treated it as part of periods, not the product failing them.

69%recalled the promiseComfort is judged relatively

Women compare one pad to another, never to zero. Of those aware of Nua, 69% recalled the promise.

~57%switched brandsSwitching is reactive

Women switch when a pad starts hurting. Better claims, ads and curiosity barely register.

1 wordthe one-word testJudged on the body, not the brand

Asked for one word, women said comfort, irritation, heaviness. Nobody said empowerment or lifestyle.

Who we designed for

takes controlAyesha

Realises she deserves better
Takes control
Never looks back

the loud oneGeet

Talks loud
Switches fast
Tells everyone when relief finally happens

wakes upRani

Awakens to self-worth
Switches brands
Never settles for discomfort again

What we proposed

Concept ads for Nua with the clarified Zero Irritation promise

Solution 01 · clarify

Clarify the promise

Zero Irritation. Promise. No rashes. No itching. Cleaner materials.

“Every body is different, but irritation shouldn’t be.” Website, social copy and small design changes. Low cost, immediate.

Solution 02 · prove

No Filters. No Free Pass.

Five women who have never used Nua try it for one full cycle and share daily, unfiltered stories. No scripts, no payments, no edits. Peer experience beats brand messaging.

The result

88%

preferred the clarified positioning over the original claim in A/B testing. The project finished in the top 5 of 20 teams.

Presentation slide: how we broke the problem down, with five research questions — Presenting how we broke the problem down.

Slide naming Nua the top performing team of the day at BSL Sprint Day 3 — Top Performing Team of the Day, BSL Sprint Day 3.

What I learned

Positioning isn’t only finding a claim. It’s understanding what the same words mean inside different people’s heads.

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one promise,four meanings.