One of the most widely used market research tools to determine consumer preferences and purchasing attitudes is “Conjoint Analysis”.
Since its first development over 40 years ago, Conjoint techniques have continually evolved to better reflect the trade-offs of the consumer when making a purchase decision. With the appearance of Choice Based Conjoint and Adaptive Conjoint, the technique became “popularized” and improved in reflecting consumer purchasing decisions.
We are currently introducing a new type of conjoint analysis: Menu-Based Conjoint (MBC).
Tuesday, 10am and you still haven't decided which mobile phone you're going to get next. “Something simple perhaps, not too expensive. Of course, in these times, “How could I not have a smartphone? With or without a data plan?” you'll have to think about it more carefully.
At the office you are desperately looking for information on a possible upgrade to your PC: (RAM, hard drive, processor, motherboard…). “A laptop would be best so I can take it to meetings. A laptop? No, I had a lot of problems with repairs last time and prices haven’t gone down lately.”
It’s lunchtime and you go as usual to the bar closest to the office: 4 menus to choose from and two of them have vegetables. “I hate vegetables. Even if I had to pay double I would never choose either of these two menus.” Finally you end up with a combination plate.
It's 7pm and before you get home you stop by the dealership to ask for more information about the “Polo” you've thought of giving to your daughter. And... which trim would be better? Advance, Sport, GTI, Blue Motion, Cross, 2 doors, 4 doors?... And that's not all, the dealership also gives you a discount if you insure your new purchase with their company's insurance company. Which also offers you several options. “Too much information for the time of day. I'd better get out of here.” I take all the paperwork, I look, review, compare, compare and compare.”
I don't think we've ever been so alien to a "day" like the one we just read about. The market is offering more and more options, combinations and personalized packages.
Many times, in everyday life, The consumer is faced with situations like this. Therefore, it is really important to know our customer and to know how they decide and why they would be willing to pay more and why less.
Although CBC remains the preferred method for modeling consumer choice behavior, it is less appropriate for modeling consumer willingness to pay for extra features of a product, i.e., In those cases where the client has the possibility of customizing the product according to their preferences.
There are more and more examples of this on the market. customizable products according to consumer preferences: computers, cars, insurance policies, banking products, Internet and mobile rate offers and much more.
Given these scenarios, the need arises for a analysis model that describes consumer behavior during the creation of a product and its possible characteristics within a menu of options.
The challenge is to model these options correctly and turn them into information that helps brand managers understand the trade-offs consumers make when new options (or “extras”) are introduced and when they are no longer available.
The “traditional” CBC consists of several screens in which respondents must choose the preferred options among different “closed” product alternatives. The focus is on designing a set of multiple products (created from the combination of factors and attributes) that respondents must rank or choose.
On the other hand, in the MBC, the interviewee can see the complete menu offered and what it entails: Price, possibility of adding or not some other component, price variations, quantity, quality and appearance of the items...
The Menu Based Conjoint design is personalized and allows the respondent the opportunity to choose various features of a “menu” to build his or her own preferred product.
Additionally, respondents can choose from “none” to multiple menu items.
Therefore, we can affirm that the Menu Based Conjoint may be more suitable for studies In which not only do we want to analyze and determine preferences for standardized products but also It is possible to incorporate new products and/or additional or extra services. In MBC the interviewee takes a more proactive role in product design (allows the ability to choose or eliminate extra features or services from the product).
Julia Agulló Samaranch
Project Manager at Hamilton
