What are perceptual maps?
According to Wikipedia,
Perceptual mapping 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.
So, Just
what is perceptual mapping? Or, is it preference mapping? Or, is it structural
segmentation? Or what? Here is a list of some of the names that this procedure is called with:
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Perceptual Mapping
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- MDS
Mapping
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Preference Mapping
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Market Mapping
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Structural Segmentation
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Product Mapping
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- Brand
Mapping
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- Goal
Mapping
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Behavioral Mapping
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- Image
Mapping
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Strategic Product Positioning
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Semantic Mapping
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Organizations use perceptual or positioning maps to help them develop a market positioning strategy for their product or service. As the maps are based on the perception of the buyer they are sometimes called perceptual maps. Positioning maps show where existing products and services are positioned in the market so that the firm can decide where they would like to place (position) their product.
Although perceptual maps can have
any number of dimensions, commonly perceptual maps are graphed on 2 and 3
dimensions for clarity and simplicity.
Now how to construct a PerMap:
1. Determine which
characteristics of the product are consumer hot buttons
This is a function of the market,
so the characteristics that consumers use to determine which car to buy are
entirely different from which doctor to use, where the criterion might be
reputation (high versus unknown) and location (near versus far). A survey
or a focus group is done to find those hot buttons that control consumer
behavior. There are also ways to use a customer relationship management
system (CRM), if properly designed, to see what consumer hot buttons are based
on actual purchase behavior.
2. Survey the market
Once we’ve identified consumer
hot buttons, we need to find out how consumers rate our products, as well as
how they rate our competitors. Its also good to get demographics, some geographics,
and some psychographic information do see if there might be some segmentation
value ie. different segments generate different maps and this can be used to
reach the segments better with unique brands.
3. Drawing a Perceptual (Positioning) Map
Theoretically a perceptual map can have any number of lines, to keep things
simple they usually have 2 lines the x and y axis.The x axis goes left to right
and the y axis goes bottom to top. Any criteria can be used for the map for
example price, quality, status, features, safety and reliability. Once the two
lines have been drawn and labelled existing products will be placed onto the
map.
4. Graph results
Computer programs can make this a
lot easier and if we’ve got more than 2 dimensions you want to graph, computers
are necessary. We use SPSS for lots of analysis projects. The map not
only displays the position of various brands, but the size of the brand on the
map also reflects its market share.
5. Interpret the map
This step is where we get
strategic value from the perceptual map. Here are some things to look for
in a perceptual map.
- Do consumer attitudes toward my brand match what I want them to think about my brand?
- Do consumer attitudes toward my competitors match what I thought about them?
- Who are the competitors consumers see as closest to my brand?
- Are there holes in the perceptual map indicating potential for new brands?
6. Make changes in the marketing
strategy
If consumers don’t see our brand
in a favorable way, we need to make changes. If there’s really something
wrong with our brand leading to poor consumer attitudes, then we need to fix our
brand. If not, changes to our advertising and promotional campaign
are needed to help moderate these attitudes.
If consumers view competitors as
being very similar to our brand, we need to think about how our brand can stand
out.
References:
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