Comparison

Every persona in the population sees the details and images of both products. Each persona is given a situation in which they might buy or use the product, called a usage moment. The persona first scores each product separately and writes down their reasoning, then chooses A or B, or says they see no difference between the two products. Which product is shown as “A” is decided at random for each persona; in the report, the products appear in the order you entered them.

When to use it

• When you’re deciding between two designs, colours or product versions.
• When you’re comparing your own product visually with a competitor’s.
• When you want to see in which consumer groups each product stands out.

If you want to measure how price affects demand, use the Price Analysis (WTP) method.

Comparison is available in two verticals:

In Fashion, each persona is automatically assigned one of 12 fashion shopper types (an archetype); archetypes are described on the Verticals page. Personas also keep in mind a monthly clothing budget set by their income group.

Before you start

• Population: You need a population in the vertical where you’ll run the study. Populations aren’t shared between verticals; a Fashion population can’t be used in General Research. See Creating a population.
• Product information: For each product, have the product page link ready, or the brand, product name, category, a short description and at least one photo. If you know the price, add that too.
• Credits: Comparison costs 10 credits per persona. In the New Research flow, you need at least 500 credits in your balance to create a General Research study, and at least 50 credits to create a new population in Fashion.

Setting up the study

In Fashion

1. Click New Research in the sidebar and choose the Fashion card.
2. Choose the Comparison card. Studies you haven’t started are listed under Drafts on the same screen.
3. On the Choose a population screen, select a population with Use existing population and click Continue with selected population, or define a new population with Create a new population.
4. On the New Fashion Study screen, check the badge next to the title: Popülasyon hazır (Population ready), Popülasyon oluşturuluyor (Creating population) or Popülasyon oluşturulamadı (Population could not be created). You can enter the products while the population is being created.
5. If you like, fill in the Study name (optional) field, then add the products on the From URL (Quick) or Detailed Entry tab (see below).
6. Click Next Step. Until the population is ready, the button reads Waiting… and can’t be clicked. No credits are spent at this step.
7. On the Research Preview screen, check the Person Count and Credit Usage values on the Experiment Summary card. Credit Usage is shown as “balance/estimate”.
8. Click Start, then click Continue in the dialog that opens.

In General Research

1. Choose New Research › General Research › the Comparison card.
2. On the Choose Population Mode screen, select a population with Select Existing Population or define a new population with Create New Population.
3. On the New Comparison Study screen, add the products on the From URL (Quick) or Detailed Entry tab. The Estimated cost: … credits badge next to the title shows what the study will cost.
4. Click Next Step. The study starts immediately and the progress screen opens.

Adding products by link

On the From URL (Quick) tab, paste the product page links into the Product URL fields on the Product A and Product B cards. Both links are required and must be different from each other. Shortly afterwards, Reading product… appears below the field. If the page is read successfully, a green preview card appears showing the image, brand, product name and price. If the page can’t be read, you see a warning and a Use manual entry → link that takes you to the Detailed Entry tab.

In Fashion, the screen has a Works with: row, and a hint below each link tells you the site’s status:

In General Research, there’s no site list or hint; every product page is tried, and the preview card works the same way.

Adding products manually

1. Open the Detailed Entry tab.
2. On the Product A and Product B cards, fill in the Brand, Product name, Category and Description fields. In Fashion, you choose the category from a list (e.g. Women Dress, Men Shirt, Other / General); in General Research, you type the category yourself.
3. If you like, fill in the Color and Price (TL) fields, and also Fabric composition in Fashion or Key specs in General Research.
4. In the Images field, drag and drop 1 or 2 photos for each product, or click the field and choose the files.

If any information is missing, you see the warning Brand, product name, category, and description are all required. or At least 1 image is required.

While the study is running

The progress screen moves through the PREPARING, RUNNING and SAVING stages. If you leave the page, the study keeps running in the background. If you stay on the page, the report opens on its own within 3 seconds of the study finishing. For details, see Starting a new study.

If the study ends with the Experiment Failed screen, in Fashion you can restart it with the same products by clicking Retry. In General Research, this screen has no Retry button; write to the SCL team through Support and include the study’s name (see Support and troubleshooting). If the image of either product can’t be read, the study fails; in a new study, enter that product with Detailed Entry and upload an image.

Settings and limits

Credit calculation

Credits = number of personas × 10. For example, a population of 50 personas costs 50 × 10 = 500 credits, and a population of 200 personas costs 200 × 10 = 2,000 credits.

• Fashion: The cost appears in the Credit Usage value on the preview. If your balance is too low, you can’t click Start; the Buy Credits button in the info icon’s tooltip opens the purchase page.
• General Research: The cost appears in the Estimated cost badge. If your balance is too low, the form shows the warning Not enough credits to start the survey.

Credits are deducted only when the study completes successfully; a failed study costs no credits. Opening the report and downloading the PDF or Excel file don’t cost credits either. For details, see Credits.

Reading the results

The completed study is listed on the Reports page under the Comparison filter. The Report sections bar at the top of the report takes you to the Summary, Product evaluation, Themes, Segments, Usage occasions and Responses sections; a section with no data isn’t shown. In the report, Product A is shown in blue and Product B in green.

Summary

At the top are the cards for the two products (image, brand, name, price). The Study verdict heading gives one of these results:

Next to it, the Preference among deciders bar shows the A and B percentages, and the line below shows the Participants, Deciders and No difference counts. The confidence interval is the range in which, based on this study’s data, the preference share can reasonably be expected to lie. Headings seen in older reports, such as Product A was chosen more often in this panel, report only an observed difference that the confidence interval doesn’t support.

Product evaluation

The Commercial diagnostic table puts the two products side by side. In the Difference column, B’s value is subtracted from A’s: a positive value means A is higher, and a negative value means B is higher.

Explore distributions opens the distributions of the purchase likelihood, appeal and perceived value scores.

Themes

Voice of the consumer shows two lists for each product: Why other personas didn’t pick this and Why advocates chose this. Themes are created by grouping the personas’ reasoning with AI. Each theme shows a short phrase, how many personas mention it and its direction (positive, negative, mixed); click a theme to open example quotes. The reasoning of no-difference personas isn’t included in these lists.

Usage occasions

Fit by occasion shows, for each AI-generated usage moment, the number of personas given that usage moment and the two products’ average fit score (1–10). If a product has a poor fit marker, it was liked but doesn’t suit that usage moment. Usage moments given to fewer than 3 personas aren’t shown.

Responses

Persona details is collapsed at first; expand it to see each persona’s choice, scores and reasoning. You can search with the Search reasoning… field and narrow the list with the Preference filter, plus the Archetype filter in Fashion or the Segment filter in General Research.

Analysing by segment

The Segments section has two cards.

Preference patterns by segment lists the groups whose preference clearly differs from the rest of the population, in the Groups leaning more towards A and Groups leaning more towards B columns. Each row shows the group’s Preference share, sample counts and Share of panel. Only groups with at least 8 deciders and a difference supported by the confidence interval are listed; if there are no such groups, the card isn’t shown. A group leaning more towards A is one that chose A more often than the rest of the population did; this doesn’t mean that A has the majority within the group.

Audience profile shows the preference share in four breakdowns: By archetype in Fashion or By segment in General Research, plus By age group, By gender and By income group. Each breakdown first shows the 6 largest groups; open the rest with Show all. Click a row to open the 95% confidence intervals and the personas in that group.

Older reports may also show a Group with the closest preference shares box: the group, at the intersection of two dimensions, where the A and B shares are closest to each other. For the concepts of breakdowns and segments, see Segmentation.

Exporting

The Download PDF and Download Excel buttons in the report header prepare the file in the background; while it’s being prepared, the button reads Generating PDF… or Downloading Excel…. The PDF report summarises the page’s sections in a slide layout. The Excel file contains these sheets:

For file formats and downloading, see Exporting and downloading.

Tips and common mistakes

• Check the image on the preview card. If the card has no product image, enter the product with Detailed Entry.
• Add the price. Personas judge purchase likelihood and perceived value against the price. If the preview card shows no price, fill in the Price (TL) field on Detailed Entry.
• Check the number of deciders. If most personas saw no difference, the report doesn’t declare a winner, even if all the deciders chose the same product.
• Read price objections correctly. This metric counts the personas who mention price in their reasoning; it doesn’t measure price sensitivity.
• Account for the brand effect. Personas see the brand name, so brand awareness affects the result.
• In General Research, wait for the population to be ready. The study can’t start until the personas have been created, and the form shows an error message; wait a while, refresh the page and try again.
• Test the results with real consumers. Validate diverging groups and important decisions with a small-scale test on real customers. See Accuracy and limitations.

Related pages

• Starting a new study
• Verticals: General Research, Fashion, Ad Testing
• Reading a report
• Segmentation
• Credits