New Respondents, New Rules: Bellomy's Unique Approach to Synthetic Respondents

Looking for a research partner who truly understands synthetics? Bellomy sets the standard.

Synthetic respondents have emerged as a powerful tool in market research for scaling insights and reaching new audiences. But keep in mind that not all synthetic solutions are created equal.

At a time when the integrity of insights is more critical than ever, researchers need synthetic respondents they can trust. That’s what sets Bellomy apart. By prioritizing methodological rigor, representativeness, and innovation, Bellomy’s approach ensures that synthetic data is not just fast and scalable, but truly actionable and dependable.

What makes Bellomy's approach to synthetics different?

Our expert team avoids common pitfalls associated with synthetics by maintaining high standards and applying the same rigorous quality assurance and commitment to excellence as we do in all our research.

Bellomy’s holistic approach to building and utilizing synthetics delivers more reliable and actionable insights. We carefully consider the ethical implications of using synthetic respondents, ensuring responsible implementation and transparency throughout the process. Accurate finding of consumer trends and preferences is essential for delivering actionable insights.

Our approach includes the following proven practices, methodologies, and considerations:

No Training on Past Surveys

We avoid perpetuating legacy bias by not training our synthetics on historical survey data. This ensures fresher perspectives and reduces the risk of reinforcing outdated patterns.

Psychographic + GenAI Layering

We enrich our synthetic respondents with Big-5 personality traits and behavioral data, layered through advanced GenAI techniques. This multi-dimensional approach results in more realistic and nuanced responses.

ZIP-Level & Census Anchoring

Bellomy’s synthetic panel offers coverage across approximately 33,000 ZIP codes and is anchored to US census variables, allowing for highly representative sampling, even in hard-to-reach or niche segments.

Digital Twinning

Our digital twin methodology is used strategically and selectively for high-value segments, ensuring fidelity and relevance rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.

Tiered Human + Synthetic/Twin Weighting

Bellomy uses a nuanced hybrid research model, combining both human and synthetic data through strategic weighting. This allows us to maximize the strengths of each type of respondent for more robust insights.

External Validation

We validate Bellomy’s synthetic panel against external data sources, such as sales and market benchmarks, to ensure both accuracy and reliability.

Ethical Considerations & Secure Practices

Multiple layers of watermarking and transparent R&D practices are employed to maintain data integrity and prevent misuse, reinforcing our commitment to ethical research.

Bellomy’s dedication to methodological rigor and innovation means our synthetic respondents do more than just generate data points—they’re a powerful tool for unlocking deeper, more actionable insights.

How does Bellomy use synthetics to unlock deep insights? 

For organizations ready to harness the power of synthetic respondents, Bellomy delivers proven solutions designed for today’s research challenges.

Bellomy's Proprietary Synthetic Panel

Our curated synthetic respondent panel is built from AI-generated profiles that statistically mirror real-world populations. These synthetic respondents enable faster, more scalable research without relying solely on traditional survey panels.

The panel can also be tailored to represent audiences who speak other languages, ensuring inclusivity and broader market coverage. Whether you’re testing early concepts or exploring niche segments, our panel delivers speed, flexibility, and depth.

Digital Twinning

Digital twinning is the process of creating synthetic respondents that reflect the key traits and behaviors of specific human respondents. These digital twins of actual people allow us to simulate realistic consumer responses while reducing the cost and limitations of traditional data collection. This method delivers tremendous value and provides accurate, replicable insights across studies.

Tiered Human + Synthetic Weighting

We don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach. For the most reliable results, we recommend a tiered weighting system that includes responses from actual human respondents and synthetics. This method adjusts the influence of each data source based on your study’s objectives—ensuring the right balance of data quality, scale, and representativeness.

As with any research effort, our team will guide you through the process of selecting the right approach to using synthetics. 

We'll work closely with you to recommend the optimal synthetic methodology for your specific challenge, maximizing the precision and impact of your insights.

How should you integrate synthetic respondents into market research studies?

Building effective panels involves generating synthetic profiles and synthetic users that accurately represent the target audience, ensuring comprehensive and realistic data collection and analysis.

Each research initiative with synthetic respondents is unique, but we follow a similar process with each project, including the following steps. 

1. Define the Research Objective

Clarify what you want to learn. Is the goal to gain feedback on early concepts, scale insights quickly, reach hard-to-access audiences, or something else? Confirming the objective will help us ensure that we're selecting the most appropriate approach for incorporating synthetics. 

2. Identify the Right Synthetic Type(s)

Choose from:

• Pure Synthetics (for scalable insights from virtually any audience)
• Digital Twins (for extending the value of data from real human respondents)
• Scenario-Based Synthetics (for future-state testing)

Our team can guide you through which synthetics are the right fit for your business challenge. 

3. Map Your Segments

Use ZIP-code, psychographic, and census variables to build a panel of synthetics that mirrors your target audience or audiences.

4. Build the Questionnaire

Design your survey with synthetics in mind. Keep in mind that AI and humans may interpret and respond to certain types of questions (especially scale ratings) differently. Bellomy has knowledge on how to craft a questionnaire for synthetics that will yield the most useful and reliable results. 

5. Validate with Human Data (Optional but Powerful)

Including a small number of human respondents in addition to synthetics will help determine the accuracy of the results from synthetic respondents and identify variance or bias.

6. Analyze & Interpret Carefully

Consider where synthetic results are strong (e.g., larger scale, greater consistency) and where caution is needed (e.g., lack of genuine human experience).

7. Apply or Iterate

Use synthetic findings to narrow down options, refine hypotheses, or prepare your final concepts for further testing and validation with human respondents. 

Ready to give synthetics a try? Start strong with Bellomy by your side.

At Bellomy, we build and deploy synthetic respondents using best practices shaped by rigorous research, development, and testing, along with exceptional diligence and thorough quality assurance at every step.

Our collaborative approach means we consult closely with clients to tailor each solution to their specific needs. With Bellomy, you can trust that we’re committed to maximizing accuracy and delivering reliable, actionable results—always held to the highest standards.