Built on Trust. Sustained by Results.
Some clients send a brief. Our longest-standing product testing client sends the next one before the first email has even arrived.
Over years of working together, Zest has become embedded in one of the world’s leading consumer brands’ research operation, supporting product development across their full product portfolio, from floorcare and cookware to haircare and skincare, through a programme of research that runs continuously throughout the year. Last year alone that meant 70 in-home user trials and 64 additional studies, and a relationship that shows no sign of slowing down.
We run the full spectrum. In-home user trials place products with verified, quality-checked participants for extended periods, tracking real usage, gathering diary entries and survey responses, and flagging issues in real time. Focus groups bring participants together for structured product feedback. In-home interviews send our team directly to participants alongside the product, with travel routes and transportation organised by Zest. And for on-location salon days, we recruit and quality-check participants, manage the process, and provide a dedicated Zest host to ensure every participant arrives prepared and the session runs without friction.
Across every methodology, the infrastructure is the same. Meticulous recruitment. Direct participant management. A dedicated Zest team that owns every detail, from first contact to final sign-off.
To illustrate what that looks like in practice, we’ve chosen a favourite, both ours and our client’s. When they needed to test a prototype LED face mask before launch, we placed 300 devices in the hands of everyday users across the UK over two months. Half the sample were required to be verified existing owners of LED face masks, so we built a multi-stage verification process, collecting proof of ownership and securing client sign-off on every participant before onboarding. No shortcuts. No assumptions. Three hundred verified, quality-checked testers. On completion, all 300 prototype units were collected and sent for controlled destruction.
That project is now in its next iteration. And the one after that is already in planning.
Methodology:
In-Home User Tests, Focus Groups, In-Home Interviews, On-Location Salon Days
Scale:
134 studies last year. 141 and counting this year
Services:
Recruitment, product verification, participant support, logistics, hosting, collection and controlled destruction
Working with Zest to test our first LED mask with consumers was a fantastic experience. The project was complex — skincare was a completely new space for the business, and the volume of studies required to ensure a highly consumer-satisfying product was very large. Despite the clear challenges, Zest successfully accomplished all our requests, finding great quality testers who allowed for excellent diversification. They were extremely flexible any time the research required a pivot — which frequently happened given the new space we were operating in. I am really grateful to the Zest team for all they've done and the excellent support they provide, no matter how challenging a project we propose.