Topography is a turnkey solution created to explore a number of entities, such as brands, that can be rated on a list of attributes. This methodology gives you an important understanding of consumers' perceptions of each entity, perceived similarities between them, each entity's most differentiating attributes, and a visual comparison of ratings among the entities in aggregate as well as individually by each attribute.

Building a Topography Test

In the Survey Editor, click and drag the Topography icon into place on your survey, or click the Add a Question button at the end of the survey and select Topography from the Question Menu.

The Question field is pre-populated with text that will automatically update based on the further construction of your question. While you can ultimately customize this text, we suggest setting up the rest of the question before altering it.

Type or paste up to 10 brands or entities you want to compare in the Compared Entity fields. Type or paste up to 10 attributes you want to test in the Common attribute fields, or click the Library of Common Brand/Product Attributes dropdown to select attributes from an alphabetized list.

💡 Tip: Topography tests work best with at least 4 entities and between 5 and 7 attributes. This combination helps get competitive insight while limiting respondent fatigue. If you're unsure which attributes are most important, or if you have too many, consider first running a MaxDiff survey to narrow down a longer list.

⚠️ Note: A summary statement at the bottom of the question indicates how many questions this test will use in your survey, based on the number of entities and attributes being tested.

Topography Settings

In between the entity and attribute lists, click the Group by entities dropdown to choose whether each brand or product entity is presented as a question (with attributes as sub-questions), or select Group by attributes to present each attribute as a question (with the brand or product entities as sub-questions).

By default, the test asks respondents to give the attributes for each brand or product a Star Rating. Click the second dropdown to choose a scale of 5, 7, or 9 stars. Click the STAR RATING dropdown and select Sliders to change the ranking system to a slider view. With Sliders selected, edit the Slider options to your desired measurements, or click the dropdown to choose a prewritten Likert scale from the list. You may have up to 20 custom slider options in the Slide Option fields.

Preview Your Question Text

After your experiment's parameters have been set, revisit the question text to ensure it is still appropriate for your scenario. If you have not previously altered the text, the pre-programmed logic will show you how each question will be presented as you hover over each entity or attribute. If you accidentally delete the piping logic, a warning will appear with the option to reset to the default question text.

Before you launch your survey, be sure to preview the entire survey in respondent mode from start to finish to ensure any questions — including your Topography questions — are presented correctly.

Best Practices

• A minimum of 750 respondents is recommended for this type of test.
• The model works best with at least 4 entities and 4 attributes. You can add up to 10 items to each list, but as you're adding items, keep an eye on the overall number of questions and time (LOI) they're contributing to your survey.
• If you're not sure which entities and/or attributes to add, consider running a MaxDiff survey to narrow down a longer list of attributes.