Visualizing MR results…

Perceptual Maps

© K.E. Homa

Proprietary Material

Professor Ken HomaGeorgetown University

Semantic ScalingResearch Illustration

• How much caffeine is in your ideal cola ?Lots=4 Some=3 Not much=2 None at all=1

• How important is it to you that a cola have the desired caffeine level ?Very=4 Somewhat=3 Not much=2 Not at all=1

• How closely does brand X match to your ideal caffeine level ?Right on=4 Close=3 Somewhat off=2 Way off=1

1. Company provides adequate insurance coverage for my car.2. Company will not cancel policy because of age, accident experience,

or health problems.3. Friendly and considerate.4. Settles claims fairly.5. Inefficient, hard to deal with.6. Provides good advice about types and amounts of coverage to buy.7. Too big to care about individual customers.8. Explains things clearly.9. Premium rates are lower than most companies.

10. Has personnel available for questions all over the country.11. Will raise premiums because of age.12. Takes a long time to settle a claim.13. Very professional/modern.14. Specialists in serving my local area.15. Quick, reliable service, easily accessible.16. A “good citizen” in community.17. Has complete line of insurance products available.18. Is widely known “name company”.19. Is very aggressive, rapidly growing company.20. Provides advice on how to avoid accidents.

Does notDescribes it describecompletely it at all| | | | | |0 1 2 3 4 5

Conventional MappingSnake Chart

Need 2

Need 1

+20

+20

-20

-20

SELF

PrHi

Bu

Si

Ot

SEMI

SONO

SOLD

SULI

SAMA

SUSI

SALT

SIBI

SIRO

Alternate View: Perceptual Map

Perceptual Map

LowQuality

Low Price

High Price

HighQuality

G

C

F

E

BD

A• 2-dimensional representations• Critical attributes; relevant brands• Perceptions = f (reality, promo)• Proximity Similarity

Perceptual Map

LowQuality

Low Price

High Price

HighQuality

G

C

F

E

BD

A• If price is one of the attributes,

value line relates price to attribute“content”.

• Question: least squares fit?

Perceptual Map

LowQuality

Low Price

High Price

HighQuality

G

C

F

E

BD

A• If price is one of the attributes,

value line relates price to attribute“content”.

• Question: least squares fit?

•Answer: best in range, not least squares fit

Perceptual Map

LowQuality

Low Price

High Price

HighQuality

G

C

F

E

BD

A

1

2 3

• 2-dimensional representations• Critical attributes; relevant brands• Perceptions = f (reality, promo)• Ideal points = strategically key• Proximity Desirability

In general ...

• Most of a brand’s sales will come from the segments with the closest ideal points

• Most of a segment’s sales (share) will go to the brands closest to its ideal point

Markstrat illustration …

Perceptual Map

• 2-dimensional representations• Critical attributes; relevant brands

Which attributes?

Importance Weights

Which are the most important attributes?

Brand values?

Note: conjoint reports weights by segment…. but not for all of the attributes

Brand PerceptionsPeriod 2 Data

Perceptual Map

• 2-dimensional representations• Critical attributes; relevant brands• Perceptions = f (reality, promo)• Proximity Similarity

Power

Price

Ideal values?

Ideal Points

Perceptual Map

Power

Price

Ideal Points

Evolution …

Non-productrepositioning

• 2-dimensional representations• Critical attributes; relevant brands• Perceptions = f (reality, promo)• Proximity Desirability

Ideal Points

• Evolve over time• Direction, speed• Inflection points• Projectibility ?

“Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it was.”

The Great Wayne Gretzky says …

Ideal PointsTakeAways

• Based on customer perceptions

• Point estimates of distributions

• Different shapes: points & vectors

• Idiosyncratic, contextual, & dynamic

Perceptual Mapping: Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS)

Note: See material on MDS for more detail on the technique

Multidimensional Scaling (MDS)

• Rank pairs of products (brands)by degree of similarityA is more like B than B is like C

• Statistically ‘reduce’ the data to a 2-dimensional mappingUsually a ‘black box’ application

• Judgmentally interpret the axesMulti-dimensionally Mix of art and science

Beer Market Perceptual Mapping

•

Meister Brau

Stroh’s

••

•

Beck’s

• Heineken

Old Milwaukee•

Miller •Coors•

Michelob•

Miller Lite

• Coors Light•

OldMilwaukee Light

•

Budweiser

•Coors

Popular with MenHeavy

Special Occasions

Dining Out Premium

Popular with

Women

Light

Pale Color

On a Budget

Good ValueBlue Collar

Full Bodied •

Meister Brau

Stroh’s

••

•

Beck’s

• Heineken

Old Milwaukee•

Miller •

Michelob•

Miller Lite

• Coors Light•

OldMilwaukee Light

•

Budweiser

Less Filling

Beer Market Perceptual Mapping

Popular with MenHeavy

Special Occasions

Dining Out Premium

Popular with

Women

Light

Pale Color

On a Budget

Good ValueBlue Collar

Full Bodied

PremiumBudget

Light

Regular

Less Filling

Beer Market Perceptual Mapping

•Coors

Popular with MenHeavy

Special Occasions

Dining Out Premium

Popular with

Women

Light

Pale Color

On a Budget

Good ValueBlue Collar

Full Bodied

PremiumBudget

Light

Regular

•

Meister Brau

Stroh’s

••

•

Beck’s

• Heineken

Old Milwaukee•

Miller •

Michelob•

Miller Lite

• Coors Light•

OldMilwaukee Light

•

Budweiser

Less Filling

Beer Market Perceptual Mapping

•Coors

PremiumBudget

Light

Regular

•

Meister Brau

Stroh’s

••

•

Beck’s

• Heineken

Old Milwaukee•

Miller •

Michelob•

Miller Lite

• Coors Light•

OldMilwaukee Light

•

Budweiser

Beer Market Perceptual Mapping

Multidimensional Scaling

• Smaller samples (than semantic scaling)Very high cost methodology

• Requires extensive interpretationBy definition, results are equivocal

• Conventional wisdom: “more precise”How does anybody know?

• Separate effort to juxtapose preferencesDerived from brand rankings‘Joint space’ maps