Perceptual Mapping
It is a graphics technique used by asset marketers that
attempts to visually display the perceptions of customers or potential
customers. Typically the position of a product, product line, brand, or company
is displayed relative to their competition.
Characteristics of Perceptual Mapping
1.
Pair-wise
distances between product alternatives directly indicate how close or far apart
the products are in the minds of customers
2.
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
3.
The
axes of the map are a special set of vectors suggesting the underlying
dimensions that best characterize how customers differentiate between
alternatives
Methods to collect information on the consumers perceptions of products
1.
Similarity-Based
method (Multi-Dimensional Scaling)
2.
Attribute
based method (Factor Analysis).
Similarity-Based method
Perceptual
Map using similarity based method has been shown below for the “Cell inter”
file” discussed in the class. Where the services used has been grouped together
to find out which services form clusters based on the similarities perceived by
customers for these services. In the given example consumers perceive SMS,
Games, Alarm to be similar. This type of data gives us information about the
perception of the consumer and helps us to develop further strategies if we
analyze what are the reasons that the above mentioned services are considered
similar by the consumers.
Advantages of attribute
free perceptual map
1.
Requires
respondent to give their overall perception without defining the attribute used
by them for evaluation.
2.
These
can be developed at individual or aggregate level.
Disadvantages of attribute
free perceptual map
1.
Respondents
don’t give an objective basis on which to identify the dimensions they use for
evaluating brands. In, turn little guidance is provided for specific actions
since we don’t have an idea about attributes used by the respondent.
2.
We can only use general guidelines to define
the dimensions of the perceptual map.
Attribute based method
In this
method we define the number of products for which we want to know the
perception of the consumers on different attributes of that product. The
perception map drawn gives us an clear indication that for which attributes
which product is considered better.
From the
example considered in class, as products we have 4 stores: Store 1, Store 2,
Store 3, Store 4 and 6 attributes that are 1-Price satisfaction, 2-Variety
satisfaction, 3-Organization satisfaction, 4-Service
satisfaction,5- Item quality satisfaction, 6-Overall
satisfaction.
In the
above mentioned example perception of the consumers have been taken on a scale
of 1 to 5 with 1 being the lowest.
The stores
(products) that are near to the head on the arrow of a given attribute shows a
higher rating for that attribute by the consumers.
Guidelines for
interpreting the above map
1.
The
arrow indicates the direction in which that attribute is increasing.
2.
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
explaining variance.
3.
Attribute
that are both relatively important (i.e., long vector) and close to the
horizontal (vertical) axis help interpret the meaning of axis.
4.
To
represent a store on each attribute, draw an imaginary perpendicular line from
the location of the laptop onto that attribute.
Advantages of attribute
based perceptual map
1.
Respondents
give detailed evaluations across many attributes for each brand, which provides
an explicit description of the dimensions in the perceptual map.
2.
Allow
us to represent more than one brand and attributes and sometimes respondents on
a single map, which is very useful in competitive analysis.
Disadvantages of attribute
based perceptual map
1.
Brand
evaluation is limited to the attributes rated by the respondents.
2.
Results
are generally available in aggregated form.
3.
Required
respondent effort can be significant as the number of brands and attributes
increases.
Author
Ruhi Singla
14103
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