Reference no: EM132496611

MKT 315
Ce Liang

Tool Summary

Perceptual mapping is to show the perceptions of customers or potential customers about specific attributes of an organization, brand, product, service, or idea. It is really important. There are 4 steps of the perceptual maps.

1. Pairwise distances between product alternatives directly indicate "perceived similarities" between any pair.
2. A vector on the map (line & arrow) indicates both magnitude and direction.
3. The axes of the maps are a special set of vectors suggesting underlying dimensions (or factors) that best characterize how customers differentiate between alternatives.
4. You can't move directly into a good gap when repositioning.

Part 1: Identifying Relevant Products and Attributes. You have to totally understand what your products are and know what your products can benefit the customers. To comprehend the customers.

Part 2: Obtain Perceptions Data. Perception is described as a process by which a consumer identifies, organizes, and interprets information to create meaning. It is important to obtain perception data because in that way you can have a better understanding of the customers' behavior in order to provide the fit and nice products to them.

Part 3: Perceptual Mapping Method, Factor Analysis Methodology, and Factor Analysis Output. First, you need to understand what your customers or potential customers want from your company. Do an analysis to see what you consider good for your company now or in the future.

Part 4: Drawing the Perceptual Map and Critical Outputs from Perceptual Maps. After you have the analysis, you can start making the perceptual map to see clearly the company's current or future development. You need to have your list of brands/products and the two attributes that you have decided to use for the axis labels. You must name the axes, so you can make your map clearly. It is important to know your competitors and your own positioning in the market. Then, you need to locate good and bad gaps. A good gap is something new and original. It improves on something that already exists and it takes something that exists and finds it a new market. A bad gap is your product cannot make people feel they need it or get interested in it.

• A typical perceptual map is a two-dimensional graph with a vertical axis (Y) and a horizontal axis (X). Each axis consists of a pair of opposite attributes at each end. Each cereal brand is then plotted on the perceptual map based on how consumers perceive the brand's products relative to those attributes. In the cereal data, between sweet and soggy, the highest one is Captain Crunch. Between popular and fun, the highest is Cheerios. Between kids ads and fruity are Captain Crunch and Trix. Different people are having different taste. Old people prefer healthy food. Sports people prefer healthy and physical enhancement food. Kids prefer good looking food. In the x axis, captain crunch should be 0.68936, and the y axis should be0.9596. The Raisin Brain's x axis is -1.24502 and the y axis is --0.8444. Overall, the Captain Crunch is in the highest place on the perceptual map which means it has the good gap. The left of the map we can name it poor taste, the right of the map we can name it nice taste. The bottom of the map we can name it unpopular, and the top of the map we can name it popular. So Trix will be on the left bottom and the Captain Crunch will be on the right top. As a customer, of course I prefer to buy the brand which is in the right and top of the perceptual map. This is because There are so many different brands in the market, so doing a perceptual map is important to make your business have a positioning. Every brand should have its own label which lets people remember it. When you find out your company's positioning, you can fix some problems to be better.