How to choose a category
Categorizing products is a bit of an art and science. At Zappi we have developed Standard Categories based on our expertise and experience in defining categories for market research. Using Zappi Standard Categories helps you support your research objectives and builds a cohesive worldview to give you the most valuable insights. Below are some principles and guidelines to help you choose the best category.
1. Think about categories in a way that is intuitive and logical to consumers.
- Choose categories that reflect the shopping experience of the broad public. For example, if you’re testing a concept for a vodka, think of how it fits into a spirits aisle within a supermarket, rather than zooming in on just vodka, which would narrow down the addressable market significantly.
- Refer to large online marketplaces and their categorisation. Take inspiration from how the biggest retailers in the world guide their buyers’ experience.
- Pick categories that can be instantly understood. The name of the category and what belongs within it should be instantly clear to all consumers. Go for language that consumers are used to seeing on supermarket shelves and in their media.
2. Think of the size of the category and what else may be competing with it.
- For example, a ‘flavoured sparkling water’ category would be too zoomed-in, but if positioned within a ‘natural or flavoured still and sparking water’ category it has room to grow and capture consumers who may seek the same need met, while still differentiating it from more traditional sodas in the larger Carbonated Soft Drink category.
- Given the category-centric sampling in our Advertising Suite, if your category is particularly niche, you risk bias from sampling mostly loyal customers. Go to our Representative Audiences article to read more about how the audiences connected to the categories.
3. Consolidate within fewer categories
- If you have a broad portfolio of products you test, there are many benefits to not oversegmenting them for your Zappi testing.
- For example, if you have a vodka, rum, and gin that you run tests on, it’s best to use the Spirits category for all three. This will allow you to get consistent results and compare across all of your products more easily. You can use our tagging functionality for unlocking deeper insights into what is driving preferences on more granular separations. For example, specific types of spirits, price-points, and other characteristics.
- Using the broadest possible category gives you:
- More robust child category norms compared to testing in more segmented categories.
- Sampling that is more consistent across your tests.
- The ability to more easily test ads and concepts that straddle across categories.
How to see what categories are available
Click on your avatar in the bottom right corner and select organization settings.
In the menu on the left, select categories.
Here, you can see all the categories available to you. Click on a category to see how it will adjust the survey to fit the product you’re testing. In the examples below, you can see that the different categories will adjust the survey to best fit the type of category. Since laundry products are generally purchased less frequently than beverages, the timings are adjusted to ensure we capture accurate responses from respondents.
Custom categories
If we don’t have a category you need, you can request a custom one. Reach out to your customer support representative or submit a request for Professional Services. For our Activate It and Amplify suites, your categories will be set up as part of your onboarding process.
