TECHNICAL REPORTS

Abstract:

Why do consumers of products or services like them and/or purchase them? This is a classic, complex question with numerous methods to address it and with answers that depend on the specific application. In previous publications we have emphasized the central role of providing a consumer-perceived benefit and measuring that benefit. From the viewpoint of analytic methods, we have also discussed the value of approaching this problem from a process-driven consumer perspective as opposed to a product or service perspective. Analytic methods to find variables that, for example, drive liking can be broadly classified into two groups. The first group begins with product or service descriptive information and incorporates liking or other hedonic information post hoc. The second group includes methods that begin with liking a priori and add descriptive information to attempt to explain the liking analysis. An example of the former is External Preference Mapping (EPM) and an example of the latter is Landscape Segmentation Analysis® (LSA), a form of unfolding. In this technical report we discuss a particular weakness of EPM and contrast it with an analysis based on LSA.

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