Conjoint Analysis

Objective

To measure the relative importance of benefits and/or product attributes, overall and for individual respondents.

Examples/Applications

• Product/service design
• Choice of buying incentives
• Segmentation

Assumptions

• All important variables are included in the list
• All variables are salient for all respondents
• All respondents use a compensatory decision process
• The way in which respondents "play the game" mirrors real world decisions
• People can analyze the importance of emotional or point of sale benefits, and will accurately report it (or, alternatively, that these benefits are unimportant)
• The stimuli accurately and identically to all respondents
• The ranges of intensity are equivalent for each benefit

Mechanics

• Ratings, or alternatively rankings, choice or pairwise trade-offs
• Fractional factorial or orthogonal arrays (Latin squares)
• "Build your own" design (may not be balanced, however)
• Monanova or isotonic regression
• Personal utilities (part-worths)

Seminal Articles/Texts

• Green, Paul; Consumer Research, Vol. 1, No. 2, p. 61; September 1974

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