PVS

Product Variant Selector

Conjointly Product Variant Selector (PVS) is a comprehensive methodology for testing up to 300 product ideas that helps you identify the most appealing product variants for your brand or product category. It combines several techniques that our team have developed and refined on full-service projects for FMCG brands:

  • Choice of most appealing variant idea among a set of several variants (similar to conjoint analysis).

  • Adaptive experimental design algorithm that reduces sample size and brings clarity around top variants by zooming in on the most promising ideas.

  • Ability to run TURF analysis and simulations of preference shares (if up to 50 variants are tested).

  • Diagnostic questions using a range of methods, including our unique dual negative-positive scale to help you get a de-biased view of how your customers see each product idea and compare results across cultures and countries.

  • Open-ended feedback showing both positive and negative reactions to each variant.

Main outputs

Summary of preferences and diagnostics for each product variant

Summary of preferences and diagnostics for each variant

Compare performance of different variants on several metrics:

  • Preference Score (and Rank) from choice-based questions where respondents pick the product variant that appeals to them the most.
  • Diagnostics to help you assess how respondents rate variants on either standard questions ("healthy", "natural", "premium", etc.) or your own measures.
Summary of preferences and diagnostics by topic

Summary of preferences and diagnostics by topic

If you group your product ideas into different segments, this table will summarise average scores (both preference and diagnostics) for these segments.

Correlations of relative preferences for variants among respondents

Correlations of relative preferences for variants among respondents

Do you want to know whether people who like lemon flavour also like kiwi flavour? With this table, you can explore what preferences are correlated and which ones are not.

This output is only available for tests of up to 50 product variants.

Passport of a product idea

Passport of a product idea

Each product idea gets its own passport that shows how well it performs on each metric and shows positive and negative reactions.

Product variants that are among top ideas and also perform well on diagnostics receive a seal of approval as Winning Variants.

TURF analysis

TURF analysis

TURF stands for Total Unduplicated Reach and Frequency. It is a technique that came into prominence during the 1950s in the space of media planning. In this report, we are only using the "reach" component of this technique.

Reach is the percentage of respondents for whom at least one of the product ideas in a particular combination is their most preferred variant. That is, it is a measure of how many respondents can be "activated" by a combination of variants.

Importantly, product ideas are tested one-by-one (not in combinations). Therefore, one must be careful not to misinterpret this as ranking of preferences for combinations of products.

This output is only available for tests of up to 50 product ideas.


How to set up a Product Variant Selector experiment on Conjointly

Select Product Variant Selector and describe your experiment

Step 1 Specify your product

Provide a clear product name and detailed description of your product to ensure respondents have a thorough understanding of what they will be evaluating.

Choose your research objective and create a list of product variants to be tested

Step 2 List variants

Depending on your research objectives, you may select:

  • Identify and zoom in on top product variants
    This option enables the adaptive design algorithm, which monitors respondents’ preferences and adapts the next set of questions (shown to other respondents) to prioritise the top-performing variants, similar to that of a Claims Test.
  • Perform a thorough test of all the variants
    This option employs the traditional approach, showing each respondent different variants roughly an equal number of times, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation of each variant.

Add the product variants you want to test. You can Import a text list or manually type in the variants to create the initial list. You can add images, long descriptions, use fancy formatting, and more to enhance the presentation of your variants.

If you wish to analyse different topics, you can also specify the topic each variant belongs to.

Add diagnostics questions

Step 3 Add diagnostics

Choose your desired diagnostics questions to dive deeper into respondents’ attitudes toward the variants. You can hover over the comment icon next to each question to view the detail. Conjointly suggests including between 3 and 7 diagnostic questions to achieve an efficient and adequate experiment design.

Choose respondents

Step 4 Choose respondents

PVS studies typically require between 100 and 1,000 participants, depending on the total number of variants. Our platform displays the recommended sample size for your experiment on the left-hand panel. Conjointly offers several options to get participants for your experiments:

  1. Bring your own respondents: Use a list of your customers or leads, or source respondents from elsewhere or integrate with your other survey tool.
  2. Predefined panel: Use a specific pre-defined panel of respondents (including those who are pre-defined for your company). Data collection is managed by the Conjointly fieldwork team.
  3. Self-serve sample A: Automatically and urgently invite respondents from global panel networks. Target them by location, demographics, and profiling data. Set your own price per complete and manage your own quotas.
  4. Managed general sample: Buy responses from our panel networks. Target them by location, demographics, and profiling questions. Data collection is managed by the Conjointly fieldwork team.
  5. Email campaign: Send survey invitations and reminders via Conjointly to your own contacts. Customising the rest of the experiment by adding, removing or modifying the questions inside the monadic block. You are given complete control over the type of monadic testing your experiment will run.
Preview and launch your survey

Step 5 Complete

Your experiment is now ready for launch. Preview the survey as a participant to test your setup and click on Save and prepare for launch to launch your experiment.

Select Save and Customise if you would like to change question text, configure the order of diagnostics questions, perform other customisations, or add more questions for customer segment profiling.

Complete solution for product range optimisation