TURF ANALYSIS
TURF SURVEY AND TURF ANALYSIS TO MAXIMIZE CUSTOMER NUMBERS
We support your marketing research to optimize the product portfolio and the service portfolio with market research using TURF survey and TURF analysis. With the Total Unduplicated Reach and Frequency analysis, we determine which products or services should be offered in the market segment to achieve the maximum reach and the largest number of customers. A TURF analysis can also be used to measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns by examining how many people were reached by a particular advertising message.
HOW THE OPTIMIZATION OF A PRODUCT PORTFOLIO WORKS WITH THE TURF ANALYSIS
In general, the purpose of the TURF analysis is to discover, out of a range of different offerings, those which, in combination, achieve the maximum reach. Thus, for example, the manufacturer of a food product may wish to discover which range of flavor variants will reach the widest possible circle of purchasers. Thus, a possible objective may be to identify, out of ten different flavor variants, the five which will in combination achieve the largest number of purchasers (reach). These may not necessarily be the five variants which, when taken separately, have the highest share of purchasers. The analysis delivers the net share of purchasers for all possible combinations of 5 variants.
A further question is what volumes will be generated by different combinations (frequency). In the above-mentioned example it is determined, for each combination of five variants, what volume of unit sales can be achieved.
DETERMINING PURCHASE INTENT IN THE TURF SURVEY
Intention to purchase is asked for all the alternatives surveyed. This can be either binary (would buy/would not buy) or a scale question (would buy, would probably buy, etc.). This data is used for calculating reach. To project potential unit sales, respondents are then asked how frequently they would expect to buy their chosen alternatives. Alternatively, or additionally, it may also be asked in what quantities the accepted alternatives are likely to be purchased.
HOW TURF ANALYSIS WORKS
The actual TURF analysis calculates the reach and quantities resulting from the formation of subgroups from an overall group of variants. With increasing numbers of variants, the number of possible combinations rapidly increases to astronomical proportions. Therefore, the alternatives included in the survey should be carefully vetted for relevance. It is also possible to set limits on the combinations to be evaluated. Thus, it is possible to consider e.g., only those combinations that contain a minimum of three and a maximum of five alternatives. Or only those combinations can be considered that include or exclude specific alternatives.
The TURF procedure generates a list displaying the reach and quantities for all combinations that meet the criteria. If combinations with varying numbers of alternatives are to be analyzed, the list is divided into sections containing the different numbers of alternatives in ascending order.
Thus, for example, in a complete list covering ten alternatives, every alternative is firstly shown individually, then all 2-way combinations, then all 3-way combinations, through to a combination of all ten alternatives.
The Figures below demonstrate the results of a TURF analysis using the example of ice cream flavors. Figure 1 shows which ice flavors achieve the highest individual acceptance values.
Figure 1: TURF analyses – Acceptance of single ice cream flavor
Figure 2 presents the reach of the most successful combinations of flavors. These do not always contain the flavors that achieved the highest individual scores. Thus, the most successful 2-way combination contains chocolate and strawberry but not the most popular individual flavor, vanilla. In the best 5-way combination one finds lemon, which was only ranked 7th on an individual basis. By contrast the yoghurt flavor, which was positioned above lemon individually, would result in a lower reach when included in a 5-way combination.
Figure 2: TURF analyses – Maximum “reach” of ice cream flavor ranges