Perceptual Mapping

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Perceptual mapping is a graphic display explaining the
perceptions of customers with relation to
product characteristics.
KEY POINTS
Perceptual maps help marketers understand where the consumer ranks their
company in terms of characteristics and in comparison to competing
companies.
Perceptual maps can display consumers' ideal points that reflect their
idealcombinations of product characteristics.
When creating a new product, a company should look for a space that is
currently unoccupied by competitors and that has a high concentration of
consumer desire (ideal points).
A perceptual map is usually based more on a marketer's knowledge of an
industry than market research.
TERMS
demand void
Areas without any significant consumer desires; typically found in ideal
point maps of perceptual mapping.
price elasticity
The measurement of how changing one economic variable affects others.
For example:"If I lower the price of my product, how much more will I sell?
""If I raise the price, how much less will I sell? ""If we learn that a resource
is becoming scarce, will people scramble to acquire it? "
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Perceptual Mapping
Perceptual mapping is a diagrammatic technique used by marketers in an
attempt to visually display the perceptions of customers or potential
customers. Typically the position of a product, product line, brand, or company
is displayed relative to their competition. Some perceptual maps use different
size circles to indicate the sales volume or market share of the various
competing products.
Perceptual Map Of Competing Products
Perceptual maps commonly have two dimensions even though they are
capable of having several. For example, in this perceptual map you can see
consumer perceptions of various automobiles on the two dimensions of
sportiness/conservative and classy/affordable. This sample of consumers felt
that Porsche cars were the sportiest and classiest of the ones in the study. They
felt that Plymouth cars were the most practical and conservative. Cars that are
positioned close to each other were seen as similar on the relevant dimensions
by the consumer. For example, consumers saw Buick, Chrysler, and
Oldsmobile as similar. They are close competitors and form a competitive
grouping. A company considering the introduction of a new model will look
for an area on the map free from competitors.

Perceptual mapping
This is an example of a perceptual map.
Perceptual Map Of a Consumer's Ideal
Many perceptual maps also display consumers' ideal points. These points
reflect ideal combinations of the two product characteristics as seen by a
consumer. This diagram shows a study of consumers' ideal points in the
alcohol product space. Each dot represents one respondent's ideal
combination of the two dimensions. Areas where there is a cluster of ideal
points (such as A) indicates a market segment. Areas without ideal points are
sometimes referred to as demand voids.

Perceptual Map of Ideal Points in the Alcohol Product Space
Ideal points maps reflect ideal combinations of two product characteristics as seen by a consumer. This helps
marketers accurately target their message to consumers based on consumer desires.
Combining the Competing Products and Ideal Points Maps
A company considering introducing a new product will look for areas with a
high density of ideal points. They will also look for areas without competitive
rivals. This is best done by placing both the ideal points and the competing
products on the same map. This map displays various aspirin products as seen
on the dimensions of effectiveness and gentleness. It also shows two ideal
vectors. This study indicates that there is one segment that is more concerned
with effectiveness than harshness, and another segment that is more
interested in gentleness than strength.

Combination Map of Competing Products and Ideal Points
A combination map allows companies to find a space that has unmet consumer desires.
Intuitive Maps
Perceptual maps need not come from a detailed study. There are also intuitive
maps (also called judgmental maps or consensus maps) that are created by
marketers based on their understanding of their industry. The value of this
type of map is questionable, as they often just give the appearance of
credibility to management's preconceptions. When detailed marketing research
studies are done, methodological problems can arise, but at least the
information is coming directly from the consumer. There is an assortment of
statistical procedures (preference regression, multi-dimensional scaling) that
can be used to convert the raw data collected in a survey into a perceptual
map.
Some techniques are constructed from perceived differences between
products, others are constructed from perceived similarities. Still others are
constructed from cross price elasticity of demand data from electronic
scanners.