Multiattribute research in marketing seeks an understanding of the structure of customer decisions with respect to the market offerings of a firm and its competitors. Through such understanding the firm trys to evaluate and/or design its offerings for greater customer satisfaction and profitability. Recent applications of such research to new product evaluation and to concept generation are reviewed and critiqued, relevant methodologies are contrasted, and the import of this research thrust for management is assessed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AhtolaOlli (1975), “The Vector Model of Preferences: An Alternative to the Fishbein Model,” Journal of Marketing Research, 12 (February), 52–9.
2.
AlbersSonke and BrockhoffKlaus (1977), “A Procedure for New Product Positioning in an Attribute Space,” European Journal of Operational Research, Volume 1, 230–8.
3.
AlpertMark I. (1971), “Definition of Determinant Attributes: A Comparison of Methods,” Journal of Marketing Research, 8 (May), 184–91.
4.
AlpertMark I., BetakJohn F., and GoldenLinda L. (1978), “Data Gathering Issues in Conjoint Measurement,” working paper, Graduate School of Business, The University of Texas.
5.
BeckwithNeil E. and LehmannDonald R. (1975), “The Importance of Halo Effects in Multi-Attribute Attitude Models,” Journal of Marketing Research, 12 (August), 265–75.
6.
BelkRussell W. (1975), “Situational Variables and Consumer Behavior,” Journal of Consumer Research, 2 (December), 157–64.
7.
BensonPurnell H. (1966), “Analysis of Irregular Two Dimensional Distributions of Consumer Buying Choice,” Journal of Marketing Research, 3 (August), 278–88.
8.
BensonPurnell H. (1965), “Fitting and Analyzing Distribution Curves of Consumer Choices,” Journal of Advertising Research, 5 (March), 28–34.
9.
BerkowitzEric N., GinterJames L., and TalarzykW. Wayne (1975), “Incorporating Specific Use Situations Data into a Multi-Attribute Model for the Prediction of Individual Brand Choice,” working paper, College of Administrative Sciences, Ohio State University.
10.
BestRoger J. (1978), “Validity and Reliability of Criterion-Based Preferences,” Journal of Marketing Research, 5 (February), 154–60.
11.
BettmanJames R. (1971), “The Structure of Consumer Choice Processes,” Journal of Marketing Research, 8 (November), 465–71.
12.
BraunMichael A. and SrinivasanV. (1975), “Amount of Information as a Determinant of Consumer Behavior Toward New Products,” 1975 Combined Proceedings, American Marketing Association, 373–8.
13.
BrownMilton P., CardozoRichard N., CunninghamScott M., SalmonWalter J., and SultanRalph G. M. (1968), “Maxwell House Division,” pp. 439–66 in Problems in Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
14.
CattinPhillipe and WittinkDick R. (1976), “A Monte Carlo Study of Metric and Non-Metric Estimation Methods for Multi-attribute Models,” Research Paper No. 341, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University (November).
15.
DawesRobyn and CorriganBernard (1974), “Linear Models in Decision-Making,” Psychological Bulletin, 81 (February), 95–106.
16.
DayGeorge S., DeutscherTerry, and RyansAdrian B. (1976), “Data Quality, Level of Aggregation, and Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling Solutions,” Journal of Marketing Research, 13 (February), 92–7.
17.
DayGeorge S., ShockerAllan D., and SrivastavaRaj (1978), “Identifying Competitive Product-Markets: A Review of Customer-Oriented Approaches,” working paper, Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh (June).
18.
DayRalph (1968), “Preference Tests and the Management of Product Features,” Journal of Marketing, 32 (July), 24–9.
19.
DeutscherTerry and RyansAdrian B. (1975), “Joint Space Mapping as a Means of Understanding Changes in Brand Preference,” Working Paper 75–27, College of Administrative Sciences, Ohio State University (August).
20.
FishbeinMartin and AjzenIcek (1975), Belief, Attitude, Intention and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.
21.
FrankRonald E., MassyWilliam F., and WindYoram (1972), Market Segmentation. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
22.
GreenPaul E. (1975), “Marketing Applications of MDS: Assessment and Outlook,” Journal of Marketing39 (January), 24–31.
23.
GreenPaul E. and CarmoneFrank (1970), Multidimensional Scaling and Related Techniques in Marketing Analysis. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
24.
GreenPaul E. and DevitaMichael T. (1975) “The Robustness of Linear Models Under Correlated Attribute Conditions” 1975 Combined Proceedings, American Marketing Association.
25.
GreenPaul E. and RaoVithala R. (1972), Applied Multidimensional Scaling. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
26.
GreenPaul E. and SrinivasanV. (1978), “Conjoint Analysis in Consumer Research: Issues and Outlook,” Journal of Consumer Research, 5 (September).
27.
GreenPaul E. and WindYoram (1973), Multi-Attribute Decisions in Marketing. Hinsdale, Illinois: The Dryden Press.
28.
GreenPaul E., WindYoram, and JainArun K. (1972), “Benefit Bundle Analysis,” Journal of Advertising Research, 12 (April), 31–6.
29.
HaleyRussell I. (1968), “Benefit Segmentation: A Decision-Oriented Research Tool,” Journal of Marketing, 32 (July), 30–5.
30.
HansenFlemming (1976), “Psychological Theories of Consumer Choice,” Journal of Consumer Research, 3 (December), 117–42.
31.
HauserJohn R. and KoppelmanFrank S. (1979), “Effective Marketing Research: An Empirical Comparison of Techniques to Model Consumers' Perceptions and Preferences,” in Analytic Approaches to Product and Marketing Planning, ShockerAllan D., ed. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Marketing Science Institute.
32.
HauserJohn R. and ShuganSteven M. (1977), “Efficient Measurement of Consumer Preference Functions: A General Theory of Intensity of Preference,” Working Paper 602–001, Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University (July).
33.
HauserJohn R. and UrbanGlen L. (1976), “Direct Assessment of Consumer Utility Functions: Von Neumann-Morgenstern Utility Theory Applied to Marketing,” Working Paper 76–17, Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University (March).
34.
HauserJohn R. and UrbanGlen L. (1977), “A Normative Methodology for Modelling Consumer Response to Innovation,” Operations Research, 25 (July-August), 579–619.
35.
HowardJohn A. and ShethJagdish (1969), The Theory of Buyer Behavior. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 191–228.
36.
HuberGeorge P. (1974), “Multi-Attribute Utility Models: A Review of Field and Field-Like Studies,” Management Science, 20 (June), 1393–1402.
37.
HuberJoel (1975), “Predicting Preference on Experimental Bundles of Attributes: A Comparison of Models,” Journal of Marketing Research, 12 (August), 290–7.
38.
HuberJoel and ReibsteinDavid J. (1977), “Attitude Measures and Choice Frequency: Some Pitfalls to be Avoided,” paper presented at AMA Attitude Research Conference, Las Vegas (March).
39.
HustadThomas P., MayerCharles S., and WhippleThomas W. (1975), “Consideration of Context Differences in Product Evaluation and Market Segmentation,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 3 (Winter), 34–47.
40.
JainArun, AcitoFranklin, MalhotraNaresh, and MahajanVijay (1978), “A Comparison of Predictive Validity of Alternate Methods for Estimating Parameters in Preference Models,” working paper, School of Management, State University of New York (March).
41.
JohnsonRichard M. (1970), “Multiple Discriminant Analysis: Applications to Marketing Research.” Chicago: Market Facts, Inc. (January).
42.
JohnsonRichard M. (1971), “Market Segmentation: A Strategic Management Tool,” Journal of Marketing Research, 8 (February), 13–18.
43.
JohnsonRichard M. (1974), “Tradeoff Analysis of Consumer Values,” Journal of Marketing Research, 11 (May), 121–7.
44.
KinnearThomas C. and TaylorJames R. (1973), “The Effect of Ecological Concern on Brand Perceptions,” Journal of Marketing Research, 10 (May), 191–7.
45.
KlahrDavid (1970), “A Study of Consumer's Cognitive Structure for Cigarette Brands,” Journal of Business, 43 (April), 190–204.
46.
KuehnAlfred A. and DayRalph L. (1962), “Strategy of Product Quality,” Harvard Business Review, 40 (November-December), 100–10.
47.
LehmannDonald R. (1971), “Evaluating Marketing Strategy in a Multiple Brand Market,” Journal of Business Administration, 3 (Fall), 15–26.
48.
LutzRichard J. and KakkarPradeep (1975), “The Psychological Situation as a Determinant of Consumer Behavior,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Mary JaneSchlinger, ed. Chicago: Association for Consumer Research, 439–53.
49.
McFaddenDaniel (1970), “Conditional Logit Analysis of Qualitative Choice Behavior,” in Frontiers in Econometrics, ZarembkaP., ed. New York: Academic Press, 105–42.
50.
MillerKenneth E. and GinterJames L. (1977), “An Investigation of Situational Variance of Brand Choice Behavior and Attitude,” working paper, School of Business, University of Santa Clara (March).
51.
MontgomeryDavid B. and UrbanGlen L. (1969), Management Science in Marketing. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 53–84.
52.
MontgomeryDavid B.DickR. Wittink, and GlazeThomas (1978), “A Predictive Test of Individual Level Concept Evaluation and Tradeoff Analysis,” Research Paper No. 415, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.
53.
MorganNigel and PurnellJanet (1969), “Isolating Openings for New Products in a Multidimensional Space,” Journal of the Market Research Society, 11 (July), 245–66.
54.
MyersJames H. (1976), “Benefit Structure Analysis: A New Tool for Product Planning,” Journal of Marketing, 40 (October), 23–32.
55.
MyersJames H. (1970), “Finding Determinant Buying Attitudes,” Journal of Advertising Research, 1 (December), 9–12.
56.
MyersJames H. and ChayRichard F. (1977), “Direct vs. Derived Estimates of Ideal Product Characteristics,” working paper, School of Business Administration, University of Southern California (February).
57.
MyersJames H. and ShockerAllan D. (1978), “Toward a Taxonomy of Product Attributes,” working paper 320, Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh (October).
58.
NakanishiMasao, CooperLee G., and KassarjianHarold H. (1974), “Voting for a Political Candidate Under Conditions of Minimal Information,” Journal of Consumer Research, 1 (September), 36–43.
59.
NeslinScott A. (1976), “Analyzing Consumer Response to Innovation: The Concept of Preference Inertia,” Working Paper 877–76, Sloan School of Management, MIT (October).
60.
ParkerBarnett R. and SrinivasanV. (1976), “A Consumer Preference Approach to the Planning of Rural Primary Health Care Facilities,” Operations Research, 24 (September–October), 991–1025.
61.
PekelmanDov and SenSubrata (1974), “Mathematical Programming for the Determination of Attribute Weights,” Management Science, 20 (April), 1217–29.
62.
PessemierEdgar A. (1975), “Market Structure Analysis of New Product and Market Opportunities,” Journal of Contemporary Business (Spring), 35–67.
63.
PessemierEdgar A., BurgerPhilip, RichardTeach, and DouglasTigert (1971), “Using Laboratory Preference Scales to Predict Consumer Brand Preferences,” Management Science, 17 (February), 371–85.
64.
PessemierEdgar A., and PaulRoot (1973), “The Dimensions of New Product Planning,” Journal of Marketing, 37 (January), 10–18.
65.
PunjGirish and StaelinRichard (1978), “The Choice Process for Graduate Business Schools,” Journal of Marketing Research, 15 (November), 588–98.
66.
RaoRam C. (1977), “Rivalistic Analysis for Evaluating New Product Concepts,” in Production Management with Interfaces to Marketing and Oligopolistic Competition, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie-Mellon University (May).
67.
RaoVithala and SoutarGeoffrey N. (1975), “Subjective Evaluations for Product Design Decisions,” Decision Sciences, 6 (January), 120–34.
68.
RitchieJ. Brent (1974), “An Exploratory Analysis of the Nature and Extent of Individual Differences in Perception,” Journal of Marketing Research, 11 (February), 41–9.
69.
RyanMichael J. and BonfieldEdward H. (1975), “The Fishbein Extended Model and Consumer Behavior,” Journal of Consumer Research, 2 (September), 118–36.
70.
RyansAdrian B. (1974), “Estimating Customer Preferences for a New Durable Brand in an Established Product Class,” Journal of Marketing Research, 11 (November), 431–43.
71.
ShockerAllan D., GenschDennis, and SimonLeonard (1969), “Toward the Improvement of New Product Search and Screening,” Proceedings of the Fall Conference, American Marketing Association, 168–75.
72.
ShockerAllan D., MayJerrold, and SudharshanD. (1978), “Design of New Product Concepts: A Comparison of Optimizing Approaches,” paper presented at Joint National OR-SA/TIMS Conference, Los Angeles (November).
73.
ShockerAllan D., and SrinivasanV. (1974), “A Consumer-Based Methodology for the Identification of New Product Ideas,” Management Science, 20 (February), 921–38.
74.
ShockerAllan D., and GeraldZaltman (1977), “Validity Importance in Consumer Research: Some Pragmatic Issues” in Advances in Consumer Research, PerraultWilliam, ed. Atlanta: Association for Consumer Research, 405–8.
75.
SilkAlvin J. and UrbanGlen L. (1976), “Pre-Test Market Evaluation of New Packaged Goods: A Model and Measurement Methodology,” Working Paper 834–76, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, MIT (January).
76.
SrinivasanV. (1975), “A General Procedure for Estimating Consumer Preference Distributions,” Journal of Marketing Research, 12 (November), 337–89.
77.
SrinivasanV. (1978), “A Model and Estimation Procedure for Multi-Stage Decision Processes,” working paper, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University (May).
78.
SrinivasanV. (1976), “Network Models for Estimating Brand Images,” Research Paper No. 344, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University (December).
79.
SrinivasanV. and ShockerAllan D. (1973a), “Estimating the Weights for Multiple Attributes in a Composite Criterion Using Pairwise Judgments,” Psychometrika, 38 (December), 473–93.
80.
SrinivasanV. and ShockerAllan D. (1973b), “Linear Programming Techniques for Multi-Dimensional Analysis of Preferences,” Psychometrika, 38 (September), 337–69.
81.
SrinivasanV., ShockerAllan D., and WeinsteinAlan G. (1973), “Measurement of a Composite Criterion of Managerial Success,” Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 9 (February), 147–67.
82.
SrivastavaRajendra, ShockerAllan D., and DayGeorge (1978), “An Exploratory Study of Situational Effects on Product-Market Definition” in Advances in Consumer Research, HuntH. Keith, ed. Atlanta: Association for Consumer Research.
83.
StefflreVolney J. (1971), New Products and New Enterprises: A Report of an Experiment in Applied Social Science. Irvine, California: University of California (March).
84.
StefflreVolney J. (1972), “Some Applications of Multi-Dimensional Scaling to Social Science Problems,” in Multi-dimensional Scaling: Theory and Applications in the Behavioral Sciences, ShepardRoger N., RomneyA. K., and NerloveSarah B., eds. New York: Seminar Press.
85.
UrbanGlen L. (1975), “PERCEPTOR: A Model for Product Positioning,” Management Science, 21 (April), 858–71.
86.
WildtAlbert R. and BrunoAlbert V. (1974), “The Prediction of Preference for Capital Equipment Using Linear Attitude Models,” Journal of Marketing Research, 11 (May) 203–5.
87.
WilkieWilliam L. and PessemierEdgar A. (1973), “Issues in Marketing's Use of Multi-Attribute Attitude Models,” Journal of Marketing Research, 10 (November), 428–41.
88.
WilkieWilliam L. and WeinreichRolf P. (1973), “Effects of the Number and Type of Attributes Included in an Attitude Model: More is Not Better,” Institute Paper No. 385, Krannert Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Purdue University.
89.
WindYoram (1973), “A New Procedure for Concept Evaluation,” Journal of Marketing, 37 (October), 2–11.
90.
WrightPeter L. (1975), “Consumer Choice Strategies: Simplifying vs. Optimizing,” Journal of Marketing Research, 12 (February), 60–7.
91.
WrightPeter L. (1973), “Use of Consumer Judgment Models in Promotion Planning,” Journal of Marketing, 37 (October), 27–33.
92.
WrightPeter L. and BarbourFrederick (1977), “Phased Decision Strategies: Sequels to an Initial Screening,” in Multiple Criteria Decision Making: TIMS Studies in the Management Sciences, Vol. 6, StarrMartin K. and ZelenyM., eds. (available as a special issue of Management Science). Amsterdam: North-Holland, 91–109.
93.
ZufrydenFred S. (1976), “ZIPMAP—A Zero-One Integer Programming Model for Market Segmentation and Product Positioning,” working paper, Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Southern California.