Replacing Traditional Qual with Synthetic Pretesting

The Challenge: Fast, Early Feedback Without the Qualitative Overhead

A global FMCG brand was preparing to launch a new line of healthy snack products. With six early-stage packaging and message variations in hand, the brand’s innovation team needed fast directional feedback to select two finalists. Traditionally, they would have relied on focus groups or in-depth interviews (IDIs) — but faced three barriers:

• Time: The entire pretesting cycle had to be completed within 10 days.
• Cost: Conducting qual in four markets (US, UK, Germany, Japan) would exceed the early-stage budget.
• Sample Bias: Focus groups often produced skewed feedback due to dominant voices or groupthink.

They needed a credible, faster alternative to traditional qualitative — without sacrificing richness or relevance.

The Solution: Syntheo’s Synthetic Personas for Pretesting at Scale

To overcome these challenges, the brand partnered with DataDiggers and leveraged Syntheo — our AI-powered solution that generates synthetic insights from realistic digital personas.

Syntheo draws from thousands of real consumer data points — including demographic, psychographic, and behavioral traits — to create nuanced, lifelike synthetic respondents tailored to specific segments. Unlike simulated or randomly generated data, Syntheo is grounded in real-world consumer logic, enriched by our proprietary panels and validated using advanced modeling techniques.

For this case, we modeled 24 synthetic personas across four countries, segmented by:

• Age & lifestyle (e.g., health-conscious Gen Z, busy working moms)
• Purchase behaviors (organic snacking, on-the-go consumers)
• Attitudes toward packaging claims (eco-conscious, taste-driven, convenience seekers)

Each persona was then exposed to the six creative variations in a virtual pretesting environment. Syntheo analyzed their preferences, objections, and likelihood of purchase using natural language prediction, visual attention scoring, and simulated choice behavior.

The Results: Faster, Sharper, Bias-Free Pretesting Insights

Within 48 hours, the client received a clear, structured report comparing all six variations, including:

• Predicted appeal scores by persona type and market
• Message resonance and visual impact
• Common objections and suggested improvements
• Likelihood of first purchase and repeat purchase

Key insights delivered:

• Concept C, which featured minimalist eco-friendly packaging and a bold protein claim, resonated strongest across 3 of the 4 markets.
• Concept E, despite flashy visuals, had the lowest predicted purchase likelihood due to overcomplex messaging.
• Japanese consumers strongly preferred muted, natural-toned packaging — a nuance surfaced thanks to culturally tuned synthetic personas.

Impact vs. Traditional Qual:

Why It Worked: Trustworthy, Predictive, and Scalable

Syntheo’s success in this case stemmed from three core strengths:

1. Realistic Behavioral Modeling
   Personas were not just demographically plausible — they behaved like real consumers. Backed by DataDiggers’ proprietary panel data and powered by machine learning, Syntheo’s outputs reflected genuine market logic.
2. Speed Without Sacrificing Depth
   The client accessed rich qualitative-style feedback — preference rationale, objections, and predicted choices — in less than 2 days, enabling agile iteration in their go-to-market workflow.
3. Cross-Market Precision
   Because each market had culturally adapted persona sets, the synthetic results revealed real-world differences that generic pretesting often misses.

What the Client Said

“This changed how we approach early-stage concept testing. Syntheo gave us structured, believable feedback in a fraction of the time — without the logistics of focus groups or IDIs. We were able to move to the next development phase with full confidence.”
— Global Insights Manager, FMCG Brand

When to Use Syntheo Instead of Traditional Qual

Syntheo is ideal for:

• Early-stage screening when directional guidance is enough
• Hard-to-reach audiences where real-world recruiting is slow or expensive
• Multi-market comparisons needing consistent criteria across geographies
• Budget-sensitive projects that still require deep consumer logic

Conclusion: Syntheo Is Not Just a Shortcut — It’s a Strategic Advantage

In a world where speed, budget, and global scale matter, Syntheo is redefining qualitative research. By replacing traditional qual in early-stage pretesting, DataDiggers helped this FMCG brand stay ahead of the curve — testing faster, smarter, and with total confidence in the results.

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