1Ganesh Iyer

Perceptual MappingEWMBA 206

Fall 2007

Professor Ganesh Iyer

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Perceptual Maps

To gain competitive advantage, a firm must correctly position itself, its products, or services against competitive offerings.

Need to develop a “Mental Map” of how our product is perceived by consumers relative to the different competing products in the marketplace. » Linking Segmentation and Positioning.

Techniques that help us to construct such mental or Perceptual Maps are called Multidimensional Scaling and Factor Analysis.

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What is a Perceptual Map

A perceptual map is a visual representation of how target customers view the competing alternatives in a Euclidean space which represents the market

The map has the following characteristics:

» Pair-wise distances between product alternatives directly indicate how close or far apart the products are in the minds of customers

» A vector on the map indicates both magnitude and direction in the Euclidean space. Vectors are usually used to geometrically denote attributes of the perceptual maps

» The axes of the map are a special set of vectors suggesting the underlying dimensions that best characterize how customers differentiate between alternatives

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Perceptual Map of Beer Market (This slide shows only the products)

•

Meister Brau

Stroh’s

•

•

•

Beck’s

• Heineken

Old Milwaukee

•

Miller •

Coors•

Michelob•

Miller Lite

• Coors Light•

OldMilwaukee Light

•

Budweiser

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Perceptual Map of Beer Market (cont’d) (This slide shows only the attributes)

Premium

Popular with MenHeavy

Special Occasions

Dining Out

Popular with

Women

Light

Pale Color

On a Budget

Good ValueBlue Collar

Full Bodied

PremiumBudget

Light

Heavy

Less Filling

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Perceptual Map of Beer Market (cont’d) (This slide shows both products & attributes)

Premium

Popular with MenHeavy

Special Occasions

Dining Out

Popular with

Women

Light

Pale Color

On a Budget

Good Value Blue Collar

Full Bodied

PremiumBudget

Light

Heavy

•

Meister Brau

Stroh’s

•

•

•

Beck’s

• Heineken

Old Milwaukee

•

Miller •

Coors•

Michelob•

Miller Lite

• Coors Light•

OldMilwaukee Light

•

Budweiser

Less Filling

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Perceptual Mapping Process

Specify the "Relevant" Objects or Products.

Relevance means that the set of products chosen must be the set of competitive products that are relevant for managerial decision-making.

Two possible methodologies to collect information on consumers perception of products: » Method 1: Attribute based method (Factor Analysis).

» Method 2: Similarity-Based method (Multi-Dimensional Scaling)

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Method 1: Attribute Rating MethodExample: Evaluation of a New Laptop concept.

Select a set of laptop computers of interest to be the target group including the new concept…(say 4 products)

Decide on the set of relevant attributes on which to capture consumer perceptions (6 attributes)» Prior quantitative or qualitative research that elicits important

attributes for the target consumers.

Ensure that consumers are familiar with the laptops that are to be evaluated (e.g., through video presentation, or actual prototypes)

Respondents (target customers) evaluate / rank or rate products.

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Perceptual Mapping

A1 A2 A3 A4

P1

P2

P3

P4

Data Matrix = 4 (products) X 6 (attributes) X 300 (respondents).

Consumers

Data Matrix Factor Analysis Perceptual map

Submit data to factor analysis

Interpret the underlying key dimensions (factors) using the directions of the individual attributes

Explore the implications of how consumers’ view the competing products

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Factor Analysis: Key Concepts

It is difficult to get a clear picture of the market when dealing with so many attributes and products.

All the data/dimensions might not be necessary to capture consumer perceptions. Why?

Highly correlated attributes» Create linear combination of the measures to get a single new dimension of

the original attributes.

Take out attributes on which all computers are rated about the same.

Factor analysis output: » Say 70% of the information contained in the original attributes can be

represented by creating just 2 new dimensions. These dimensions are called factors.

» Analysis done using commercial software SPSS or SAS

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Light

Example Plot of Attributes of Laptops on a 2D Perceptual Map

C“Butterfly”

Slow

Look/Styling

Performance

Easy setup

Value

Common

Elegant

The six attributes were measured on semantic differential scales: 1) Slow–Fast operation, 2) Plain–Elegant, 3) Easy–Difficult setup, 4) Poor–Excellent value, 5) Light–Heavy, and 6) Common–Distinctive.

Toshiba 1960CT

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C“Butterfly”

Slow Easy setup

Light

Common

Elegant

(Plain)

Example Plot of Attributes of Laptops on a 2D Perceptual Map

Looks

Performance

GoodValue

Toshiba 1960CT

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Guidelines for Interpreting Perceptual Maps (Laptop)

The arrow indicates the direction in which that attribute is increasing.

Length of the line from the origin to the arrow is an indicator of the variance of that attribute explained by the 2D map. The longer this line, the greater is the importance of that attribute in capturing variance.

Attribute that are both relatively important (i.e., long vector) and close to the horizontal (vertical) axis help interpret the meaning of axis.

To represent a laptop on each attribute, draw an imaginary perpendicular line from the location of the laptop onto that attribute. (These are shown by dashed lines on the map).

What practical uses can you now put this map to at this stage?

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Limitations

Researcher should be able to clearly conceptualize the attributes

No perception gap between intended and actual perception of the attributes.

Works well for hard or functional attributes, (price, product features).

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Method 2: Overall Similarity RatingsMultidimensional Scaling

Suppose we are interested in developing a perceptual map of the ED market consisting of Viagra, Levitra and Cialis.

Suppose we ask a respondent for his perceptions of the similarities among the 3 products by asking for his judgments about all possible pairs (3 possible pairs)

Ask the respondent to rank on a scale of 1-7 the similarity of two products. Do this for all pairs…n products => n(n-1)/2 pairs.

» 1 is very similar

» 7 is very different

How different are the products perceived?» What are features distinguish different products

Commercial software implementation» SPSS and SAS.

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ED Market

Viagra Levitra Cialis

Viagra 1

Levitra 1

Cialis 1

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ED Market

Viagra Levitra Cialis

Viagra 1

Levitra 2 1

Cialis 6 5.5 1

The numbers are like distances on a perceptual map

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MDS Perceptual Map

2

5.5

6

What more would you like to know?

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Multidimensional Scaling

With 3 products, I can perfectly represent the information in two dimensions

With more products to be represented in two dimensions» information loss

Multidimensional scaling (MDS) is a mathematical technique that helps implement this analysis of similarity perceptions with minimum information loss.

What are advantages/disadvantages of MDS» Allows you to map products and simultaneously infer attributes.» Better for softer attributes which we do not verbalize very well (feel, aesthetics) » Impractical when the number of products are large.

Commercial software implementation» SPSS, SAS modules.

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Uses of Perceptual Maps

Customer Analysis and Competitive Analysis

» Understand the competitive market structure as perceived by customers.

– Position relative to competition

– Select the set of competitors to compete against

» Represent customers’ perceptions in a manner that aids communication and discussion within the organization

Product

» Perceptions of a new product concept in the context of existing brands in the market

» Finding the “gap” in the market to position the product.

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Learning

Perceptual maps are about “How our product is perceived by consumers relative to competition?”» Link Segmentation and Positioning

Segmentation, Positioning and Perceptual mapping involve careful and sophisticated quantitative analysis and not vague managerial intuition.

Two important methods to develop perceptual maps» Attribute rating

» Similarity rating