Abstract:

Product developers and marketers are often faced with the problem of selecting a reduced set of products or concepts from a large array based on consumer choice information. Good examples are selecting sets of chewing gum flavors, flavored beverages or salad dressings. Since individual consumers vary in their likes and dislikes, a difficult challenge is to select those alternatives that maximize total market share for a set of new offerings. The top two choices in a set often do not constitute the optimum set, since in many cases the top two choices may appeal to the same type of consumer. In order to maximize total market share potential, the challenge is to find those alternatives which, although they appeal to a smaller number of consumers than the first choice, complement each other and avoid appealing to duplicate consumers.