Exam 21: Multidimensional Scaling and Conjoint Analysis

Conjoint analysis, although intuitively appealing, has been slow to gain acceptance in the marketing research community.

Conjoint analysis provides a qualitative measurement of the relative importance of one attribute as compared with another.

The greater the number of objects to be mapped, the smaller the chance of a possibly unique mapping solution.

When utilities are summed for each of the concepts being judged, the rank order of these sums should match the respondent's rank ordering of preference as closely as possible.

Conjoint analysis assumes interaction between attributes.

One of the applications of conjoint analysis is to the creation of new products with significant consumer appeal relative to competitive alternatives.

Which of the following statements is not true?

Before introducing a new product, Innovators Incorporated conducted a preference study.The data were analyzed by using an ideal-point MDS solution.The company then designed and introduced a product which was extremely "close" to the target market's ideal point. However, since a new product has been introduced into the space, another study should be done since the ideal point may have been relocated.

Discriminant analysis identifies clusters of attributes on which objects differ, similar to factor analysis

In the economic theory of consumer behavior, a basic underlying assumption is that of non-satiation the consumer would always like to have more).Under this assumption, the ideal object would be represented by an ideal vector or direction rather than an ideal point in the space.

A basic assumption of conjoint analysis is that people evaluate a concept by adding up their evaluations of the individual attribute levels of that concept.

Respondents who are overwhelmed by a ranking task will tend to ignore variations in the less important attributes.

When preferences for various attributes are in conflict, conjoint analysis cannot be used.

Working with MDS includes all the following problems except:

If all of the possible levels of an attribute have the same utility, the attribute is not important in influencing overall attitude.

If there are 10 brands of a certain product on which the researcher wants similarity judgments from a respondent, as many as 45 paired judgments can be required.This maximum is determined by the formula nn - 1) / 2.

In conjoint analysis, respondents are given product concepts on cards and asked to describe the attributes they attach to each concept.

In the full profile approach, respondents may be asked to rank order cards with complete product or service configurations.

Number of dimensions in an MDS cannot be decided using a) ease of use b) external validity of solution c) interpretability of data d) none of the above

MDS Incorporated has sent out questionnaires to respondents to rank five brands of toothpaste on their ability to clean and whiten, to prevent decay, and to freshen the mouth.MDS Incorporated is using an attribute-based approach.