Perceptual Mapping by Multidimensional Scaling: A Step by Step Primer By Brian F. Blake, Ph.D. Stephanie Schulze, M.A. Jillian M. Hughes, M.A. Candidate Methodology Series September 2003 Cleveland State University Brian F. Blake, Ph.D. Jillian M. Hughes Senior Editor Co-Editor Entire Series available : http://academic.csuohio.edu:8080/cbrsch/home.html RRRESEARCH RRREPORTS IN CCCONSUMER BBBEHAVIOR These analyses address issues of concern to marketing and advertising professionals and to academic researchers investigating consumer behavior. The reports present original research and cutting edge analyses conducted by faculty and graduate students in the Consumer- Industrial Research Program at Cleveland State University. Subscribers to the series include those in advertising agencies, market research organizations, product manufacturing firms, health care institutions, financial institutions and other professional settings, as well as in university marketing and consumer psychology programs. To ensure quality and focus of the reports, only a handful of studies will be published each year. “Professional” Series - Brief, bottom line oriented reports for those in marketing and advertising positions. Included are both B2B and B2C issues. “How To” Series - For marketers who deal with research vendors, as well as for professionals in research positions. Data collection and analysis procedures. “Behavioral Science” Series - Testing concepts of consumer behavior. Academically oriented. AVAILABLE P UBLICATIONS : Professional Series Lyttle, B. & Weizenecker, M. Focus groups: A basic introduction, February, 2005. Arab, F., Blake, B.F., & Neuendorf, K.A. Attracting Internet shoppers in the Iranian market, February, 2003. Liu, C., Blake, B.F., & Neuendorf , K.A. Internet shopping in Taiwan and U.S., February, 2003. Jurik, R., Blake, B.F., & Neuendorf, K.A. Attracting Internet shoppers in the Austrian market, January, 2003. Blake, B.F., & Smith, L. Marketers, Get More Actionable Results for Your Research Dollar!, October, 2002. How To Series Blake, B.F., Valdiserri, J., Neuendorf, K.A., & Nemeth, J. Validity of the SDS-17 measure of social desirability in the American context, November, 2005. Blake, B.F., Dostal, J., & Neuendorf, K.A. Identifying constellations of website features: Documentation of a proposed methodology, February, 2005. Saaka, A., Sidon , C., & Blake, B.F. Laddering: A “How to do it” manual – with a note of caution, February, 2004. Blake, B.F., Schulze, S., & Hughes, J.M. Perceptual mapping by multidimensional scaling: A step by step primer, July, 2003. Behavioral Science Series Shamatta, C., Blake, B.F., Neuendorf, K.A, Dostal, J., & Guo, F. Comparing website attribute preferences across nationalities: The case of China, Poland, and the USA, October, 2005. Blake, B.F., Dostal, J., & Neuendorf, K.A. Website feature preference constellations: Conceptualization and measurement, February, 2005. Blake, B.F., Dostal, J., Neuendorf, K.A., Salamon, C., & Cambria, N.A. Attribute preference nets: An approach to specifying desired characteristics of an innovation, February, 2005. Blake, B.F., Neuendorf, K.A., Valdiserri, C.M., & Valdiserri, J. The Online Shopping Profile in the cross-national context: The roles of innovativeness and perceived newness, February, 2005. Blake, B.F., & Neuendorf , K.A. Cross-national differences in website appeal: A framework for assessment, July, 2003. Blake, B.F., Neuendorf , K.A., & Valdiserri , C.M. Appealing to those most likely to shop new websites, June, 2003. Blake, B.F., Neuendorf , K.A., & Valdiserri , C.M. Innovativeness and variety of information shopping, April, 2003. RRRESEARCH RRREPORTS IN CCCONSUMER BBBEHAVIOR EDITORIAL DIRECTOR : DR. BRIAN BLAKE Dr. Brian Blake has a wide variety of academic and professional experiences. His early career... academically , rising from Assistant Professor to tenured Professor at Purdue University, his extensive published research spanned the realms of psychology (especially consumer, social, and cross-cultural), marketing, regional science, sociology, community development, applied economics, and even forestry. Professionally , he was a consultant to the U.S. State Department and to the USDA, as well as to private firms. Later on...on the professional front, he co-founded a marketing research firm, Tactical Decisions Group, and turned it into a million dollar organization. After merging it with another firm to form Triad Research Group, it was one of the largest market research organizations based in Ohio. His clients ranged from large national firms (e.g., Merck and Co., Dupont, Land o’ Lakes) to locally based organizations (e.g., MetroHealth System, American Greetings, Progressive Insurance, Liggett Stashower Advertising). On the academic side, he moved to Cleveland State University and co-founded the Consumer-Industrial Research Program (CIRP). Some of Cleveland’s best and brightest young marketing research professionals are CIRP graduates. In the last few years... academically , he is actively focusing upon establishing CIRP as a center for cutting edge consumer research. Professionally , he resigned his position as Chairman of Triad and is now Senior Consultant to Action Based Research and consultants with a variety of clients. EDITOR (2003): JILLIAN HUGHES Currently a CIRP graduate student, she graduated Magna Cum Laude from Mount Union College, where she majored in Psychology, with a focus on Consumer Behavior, and minored in Sociology. Among her many research interests; she focuses on Internet buying behavior, and the effects of Social Desirability Bias on Innovativeness Scales. She had the honor of presenting research concerning age differences in brand labeling at the Ohio Undergraduate Psychology Conference in April of 2001 at Kenyon College. She also presented another piece of original research on Internet buying behavior of college students at the Interdisciplinary Conference for the Behavioral Sciences hosted by Mount Union College in April, 2001. Forward Perceptual Maps are widely used by market researchers, e.g., to portray a brand’s image or consumer’s reactions to product features. Although the major statistical techniques have been available for several decades, these are still many questions about those techniques among practicing professionals. This report is intended for “on the job” professionals who are fairly unfamiliar with the concrete procedures used to generate and to interpret such maps In overview, three types of maps are especially popular among professional researchers: • “perceptual” maps that identify the images of brands, products, services, etc. • “preference” maps that estimate differences among segments or individuals in the appeal or attractiveness of brands, products, services, features. • “hybrid” maps which portray both images and appeal. A variety of statistical techniques can be used to generate each type of map. Perceptual maps are usually constructed via multidimensional scaling - multiple discriminant function – correspondence analysis. Preference maps are typically developed by a form of multidimensional “unfolding.” Hybrid maps are composed by first devising a perceptual map and then introjecting preferences as “ideal points” or as “vectors.” This paper focuses upon one mapping technique, multidimensional scaling (MDS), and executes it via a program package that is widely used by market researchers, SPSS. Abstract The overall objective of this report was to document the applications of two widely applied forms of “perceptual mapping”, Classical and Weighted Multidimensional Scaling. A step-by-step guide is provided for the use of these mapping techniques. It is anticipated that this report will be valuable to the professional market researcher who is new to perceptual mapping and to others looking for a detailed reference source for performing the basics of these techniques. The illustrative data pertain to the images of particular hospitals in the Northeast Ohio area. The data were gathered from a convenience sample of family, friends, and acquaintances of the researchers. A total of 107 took part in the study. The techniques were Classic Multidimensional Scaling (CMDS) and Weighted Multidimensional Scaling (WMDS). The statistical software program SPSS was used, but the ideas can be generalized to other statistical packages and programs. I. Overview of the Three Mapping Procedures Before describing each technique in detail, let us present them in overview. 1) Classic Multidimensional Scaling (CMDS) To begin, the data for CMDS and WMDS are indicators of the degree of similarity among objects, brand names, etc. Here, the data are ratings of the degree of perceived similarity among the twelve “stimuli”- four hospitals identified by name, four unnamed hospitals described by taglines, and four unnamed hospitals described by advertisements. The four named hospitals in our illustration were Fairview Hospital, Parma Community Hospital, Southwest General Hospital, and MetroHealth System. The four taglines were 1) “In the hands of doctors” 2) “It’s a people thing” 3) “When it’s your health, experience counts” and 4) “Your partner in good health”. For this report, let us abbreviate them as 1) “doctor’s hands” 2) “people thing” 3) “experience counts” and 4) “partner”. The four advertisements were labeled 1) “magic bullet” 2) “heart surgery” 3) “diet and exercise” and 4) “heart center”. The advertisements are shown on pages 3-6. Respondents rated the similarity of pairs of these items on a 0-10