Assortment Simulator —
Test how proposed changes affect brand DNA
The Assortment Simulator lets you model 'what-if' scenarios for your product mix and see how changes would affect your brand DNA. Instead of waiting for next season's data to see the impact of buying decisions, you can preview the distributional consequences in real time.
The simulation works by adjusting the quantity weights of products matching certain attribute values. When you increase a slider (e.g., move 'Sustainable Materials' from current 12% to target 25%), the simulator recomputes the full brand distribution as if your assortment had that new mix. Every attribute is affected — increasing sustainable materials may shift your colour mix if sustainable products tend to come in earth tones.
The before/after spectrogram comparison shows the current brand DNA alongside the projected DNA after your simulated changes. Cells that change by more than 5% are highlighted, making it easy to spot ripple effects — changes in one attribute that cascade into others through product correlations.
Product congruence scoring evaluates individual products against the brand DNA (current or projected). Each product gets an alignment score based on how well its attributes match the brand's distributions. Products with low alignment are either unique outliers (potentially valuable for differentiation) or off-brand (candidates for range rationalisation).
The real-time what-if mode updates the radar chart as you drag sliders, after a 300ms debounce. This lets you explore trade-offs interactively — 'if I push more into prints, how does my shape DNA change?' The system handles rapid changes gracefully, always showing the result of your latest input.
Tips
- Start with one slider change at a time to understand individual attribute impacts before combining multiple changes.
- Watch for unexpected ripple effects in the before/after comparison. Increasing one attribute value often decreases others — the distributions must sum to 100%.
- Use product congruence scoring to identify 'brand anchors' (products that score highest) and 'brand outliers' (products that score lowest).
- The simulator is particularly useful for seasonal buying — model your planned assortment changes and check that the resulting brand DNA still aligns with your positioning strategy.
- Sort products by alignment score to quickly identify the products most and least representative of your brand DNA.