We are constantly developing to meet our clients' needs and to keep our approach up-to-date. Our internal development team are creating new features and refining existing ones full-time, and are always on hand to create tailor-made solutions should you have a specific requirement.

Following the success of the quantification tool, Hyperthetical were commissioned by Kallo Foods to run another survey, this time for a less frequently purchased product. We were able to simplify the quantification tool for this purpose by gathering less detailed data on current usage, perceived new product usage and resulting change in current usage, and cross-referencing the results to report the same level of detail.

Our newest feature within surveys was developed as part of a second phase survey for Kallo Foods. The client had a requirement for a detailed estimation of the quantity of displacement the new product would cause among their own and their competitors' existing products. By collecting volume data from respondents in relation to specific products at various occasions throughout the day, we were able to give a detailed report on potential steal from competitors and potential cannibalisation of their own user-base, as well as the likely volume of each of their new proposed products they could expect to sell and when they would be consumed.

We have recently completed an in-home user test project involving fabric dyes of various colours and formats. This required careful monitoring to ensure the results of each respondent could be matched to the sample they received and was expertly managed by our distribution team.

For our latest project, an in-home test of a low fat snack, it became desirable to compare the results of different groups within the sample dependent on their brand and product eating habits, as well as their answers in relation to certain concepts. In Hyperthetical we are able to define 'filters', to identify the results of a group fitting precise criteria based on any answers throughout the survey. This is useful in comparing, for example, the results of current brand loyalists to those of a rival brand's loyalists.

Following our successful pilot with one of the country's leading frozen food manufacturers, we have fine-tuned their standard survey together and this month we are testing 33 concepts for them. Any number of concepts can be tested in a single Hyperthetical concept screener. We calculate the maximum number of concepts that can be evaluated by any one respondent in a reasonable survey length, and increase the total required panel size accordingly. The concepts are rotated and randomly selected, ensuring that they are evenly distributed and ordered across the panel.

Over the next few months we have a number of in-home product testing projects. We generally use a 2-survey approach for this, first running a screener as normal and collecting the addresses of willing participants then sending out samples of the product and following up with a survey about the sample once they've had a chance to use it. Hyperthetical can manage this whole process at a very reasonable price. We are able to match the results from both surveys by a unique respondent ID so we don't need to re-ask for any background data, keeping the follow-up survey shorter and therefore costs lower.

Our latest endeavour is a survey taking place in France for an internationally renowned toy manufacturer. The nature of the research is fairly straight-forward, utilising our standard model. The slight twist of this project is that the opinions of both parent and child are required. Of course these are no problem to collect, and the nature of our data structure in a relational database means we can quickly and easily cross-reference the results of both and report back on the strongest concepts in a well-reasoned and understandable way.

After the success of the previous project, we were once again commissioned by a leading soft drink manufacturer to determine the optimum size and price for a new share size bottle of a popular drink. In this instance the focus was more on price and for this we introduced our pricing module, which uses a series of questions and an evenly-spaced range of prices to pin-point the optimum price point, between those that were above the perceived value of the product and that were low enough to reflect badly on the quality of the product. This is called the Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter.

Often it is necessary to identify which aspects of a product have the biggest effect on its likelihood of success. Hyperthetical have just run such a survey for a leading soft drink manufacturer. On consideration of launching a new, slightly larger, bottle of a hugely popular drink the client wanted to find the relative importance of liquid volume to the consumer in relation to other factors, such as price. A very successful method for cases like this is conjoint analysis, whereby combinations of variable factors are repeatedly presented as choices to the respondent, changing each time, eventually revealing an optimum combination as well as a tendency to place more importance on certain factors than others. Using this method, combined with some of our more standard tools, we were able to provide a likely uptake of the new product from current users and, more importantly, users of rival products, and also determine which suggested special offer would be the most successful.