Perceptual Mapping_TEAM D

Perceptual mapping

It’s a marketing research technique in which consumer's views about a product are traced or plotted (mapped) on a chart. Respondents are asked questions about their experience with the product in terms of its performance, packaging, price, size, etc. These qualitative answers are transferred to a chart (called a perceptual map) using a suitable scale (such as the Likert scale), and the results are employed in improving the product or in developing a new one. See also mapping.

Perceptual maps can have any number of dimensions but the most common is two dimensions. Displaying consumers’ perceptions of related products is only half the story. Many perceptual maps also display consumers’ ideal points. These points reflect ideal combinations of the two dimensions as seen by a consumer.

Next, why would you want to do perceptual mapping?

Perceptual maps help us understand what consumers think about your brand.

Perceptual maps help us understand what consumers think about your competitor’s brands.

Perceptual maps help us build an effective marketing strategy.

• maps help us build competitive strategy
• maps help us build communication strategy
• maps help us identify potential new products
• maps help us build brand strategy

Perceptual maps need not come from a detailed study. There are also intuitive maps (also called judgmental maps or consensus maps) that are created by marketers based on their understanding of their industry. Management uses its best judgment. It is questionable how valuable this type of map is. Often they just give the appearance of credibility to management’s preconceptions.
When detailed marketing research studies are done methodological problems can arise, but at least the information is coming directly from the consumer. There is an assortment of statistical procedures that can be used to convert the raw data collected in a survey into a perceptual map. Preference regression will produce ideal vectors. Multidimensional scaling will produce either ideal points or competitor positions. Factor analysis, discriminate analysis, cluster analysis, and log it analysis can also be used. Some techniques are constructed from perceived differences between products, others are constructed from perceived similarities. Still others are constructed from cross price elasticity of demand data from electronic scanners.

Abishek Machama

TEAM D