TURF

TURF Analysis Simulator

TURF (Total Unduplicated Reach and Frequency) is a time-tested statistical technique that helps you discover top item combinations that appeal to the most people. It gained prominence in media planning during the 1950s and has been extensively used for product feature selection, claim testing, and range optimisation. Conjointly’s advanced TURF analysis simulator allows for:

Identifying top combinations that appeal to the largest number of potential customers.
Evaluating individual performance of different items in reaching the largest number of potential customers.
Discovering complementary options that are consistently preferred when presented together.

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Key outputs

Top combinations

Top combinations will give you the combinations of items that provide the highest reach. You can change the number of items in each combination by adjusting the number of items in combination on the configuration tab.

Prioritised sequence of combinations (ladder) in TURF analysis

Prioritised sequence of launching SKUs (ladder)

This output provides the top-performing combination for an incrementally increasing number of options in each combination. This means the first row will show the item with the highest reach, the second row will show the combination of two items with the highest reach, and so on.

The Force TURF ladder to build upon previous steps option can also be enabled if you prefer each subsequent combination builds upon the previous one. This means the second row will include the item from the first row plus the next best-performing item, while the third row will contain the first two items plus the next optimal addition. This option is ideal for businesses planning a gradual, step-by-step product release strategy.

Waterfall chart

The waterfall chart is a visual version of the ladder, showing the incremental reach gained with each item added to the combination. Use it to see at a glance where additional items stop delivering meaningful returns.

This chart requires each step to build directly on the previous one, so enabling it will lock in the selections from prior steps. This is the same behaviour as the Force TURF ladder to build upon previous steps option described above.

Easily calculate reach and frequency in TURF analysis

Simulate scenarios

This output will calculate the reach and frequency of custom combinations of items. Use this module if you already have one or more scenarios in mind and want to assess their performance.

Correlations

This output displays the correlations of scores between each item. Correlations measure how similar the scores between two sets of items are. Items that are both preferred and strongly negatively correlated with each other will appeal to different groups of respondents, and tend to be included in the same combinations to maximise reach.

Map of substitutes

The map of substitutes is a visual representation of the correlations table, grouping similarly correlated options together. Items that appear in the same group attract the same segment of respondents, which means they are largely interchangeable and offering both adds little incremental reach.

Items positioned far apart appeal to different groups of respondents, making them good candidates to combine in a range.

Easily see reach of individual items separately in TURF analysis

Table of reach by item

This output displays which respondents are activated by which item. Cells highlighted in blue represent items that are considered active for that respondent. The criteria for activated items depend on the reach method and threshold chosen, as described below.

Easily see score metrics for each item individually in TURF analysis

Performance of each item separately

This output displays score metrics for each item, including the mean, standard deviation, rank by mean score, and reach. Use this output for a quick summary of the individual performance of each item.

How to access the TURF Analysis Simulator

The TURF analysis simulator is accessible in the following Conjointly experiment outputs:

Generic Conjoint: levels per attribute.
Brand-Specific Conjoint: levels by attribute by brand.
Claims Test: Preference scores *.
Product Variant Selector: Preference scores *.
Survey questions: multiple choice, star ratings, ranking, and constant sum.

It is not available for Brand-Price Trade-Off preference scores.

Conjointly also provides a dedicated TURF analysis tool, enabling you to conduct TURF analysis on your custom dataset.

* Conjointly generally limits the TURF analysis to 50 items because it is not realistic to determine relative preferences for more than 50 items for each individual. For Claims Tests and Product Variant Selector, it is only available if HB analysis is enabled.

TURF analysis simulator settings

The following settings of the TURF analysis simulator can be easily modified within the Configuration tab:

Number of items in combination
Set this value to your target range size. For example, enter 5 if you plan to launch five products, or 3 to evaluate a three-item lineup.
Reach method
As different data sources will have different representations of how respondents show preference, the TURF analysis tool allows you to choose how respondents are determined to be activated by combinations of items through one of the following reach methods:
- Among top options for a person
  Respondents are considered activated by items if their scores rank among the top N items, where N can be adjusted by changing the threshold value. This reach method can be used where higher scores indicate a stronger preference for a particular item. For most applications, we recommend using this method, setting N = 1.
- Among bottom options for a person
  Respondents are considered activated by items if their scores rank among the bottom N items, where N can be adjusted by changing the threshold value. This reach method should be used with data where lower scores represent higher preferences.
- Greater than
  Respondents are considered activated by an item if its score exceeds the threshold value. This reach method can be used with data where scores above a certain value indicate preference.
- Greater than or equal to
  Respondents are considered activated by an item if its score is greater than or equal to the threshold value. This reach method can be used with data where scores above a certain value indicate preference.
- Equal to
  Respondents are considered activated by an item if its score equals the threshold value. This reach method is best used when scores of a specific value represent activation, such as data from a multiple choice question.
- Less than
  Respondents are considered activated by an item if its score is less than the threshold value. This reach method can be used with data where scores below a certain value indicate preference.
- Less than or equal to
  Respondents are considered activated by an item if its score is less than or equal to the threshold value. This reach method can be used with data where scores below a certain value indicate preference.
- Utils
  Utils calculates the average probability that an item in a combination will reach the respondent if placed among a set of other combinations. This reach method is better at considering strong secondary preferences and is best used for utility scores from conjoints and MaxDiffs. It can also be used for any data with mean-centred scores (the mean is 0). There is no frequency value when using the “Utils” method.
Threshold value
Specify the threshold value to be used in the reach method.
Ensure each combination has at least one high-ranking item
This option forces combinations to contain at least one of the top N items, where N can be adjusted through the option labelled Specifically, at least one item that is among the top.
Combinations must include all of these
This option lets you specify items that must be present in every combination in the output. For example, you may want to include all items that have already been released.
Combinations must include any of these
This option lets you select multiple items, ensuring that the combinations in the output contain at least one of the selected items. For example, when you are choosing any item from a specific category.
Combinations must exclude all of these
This option allows you to specify items to ensure they never appear in any combinations in the output, such as those identified as underperforming.
Prohibited pairs
This option allows you to specify the combinations of items to prevent them from appearing together in the output. Use this option to avoid combinations that may seem unrealistic to consumers.
Exclude the following from analysis
This option allows you to specify the items to be excluded from analysis, such as those belonging to competitors.

You can conduct multiple TURF analyses with different settings by duplicating an existing configuration and modifying it as needed.

Conduct TURF analysis on your custom dataset

Upload your own dataset

When you open the TURF analysis tool , you will see three preloaded example datasets. To upload a custom dataset into the app, click on the Upload a new dataset button:

The dataset should be in a .csv file, where each row represents a respondent and each column represents an item ( Example dataset).

If you want to use weighting for your dataset, ensure that one of the columns is called weights and all its values are between 0 and 1.

You can then configure the settings as described above.

Export into PowerPoint and Excel

You can export the output of all tabs into either Excel or PowerPoint by clicking on the Export into Excel or Export into PowerPoint button. Alternatively, you can export tabs individually by clicking the Quick export button in the top-right corner of each tab.

When there are multiple TURF analyses for the same question or item, only the first analysis will be exported.

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