The SWITCH project was one of the winning bids in a funding competition by InnovateUK to support new ways of enhancing user experience in retail. The lead organisation of the Project was P&G UK with IBM UK, Europanel, iARC and Durham Business School as partners.  Information on the project in the UKRI site is provided here.

SWITCH aimed to understand & model, via new consumer research, data analysis methodologies & tools, the human factors that affect consumers' conversion into different product forms (e.g. laundry detergent powder to liquid) for household goods in key markets: UK, China, and Brazil. SWITCH aimed to improve our capability, beyond the state of the art, to predict & therefore influence form conversion. This can result in: 1) improved consumer experience (at retail and use); 2) increased product sales of more modern forms which typically have improved environmental impact; 3) market share/category growth. The project aimed to overcome limitations in predicting market response to new forms and avoid wasted investment by focusing on  on a much wider variety of data, including social media, to glean more insights into our consumers preferred product forms, and what factors would trigger conversion. The project developed and utilised advanced data analysis techniques and new mathematical models to predict market conversion readiness.