Tuesday 30 August 2011

Perception mapping the easy and complex face of Analytics

Today was an easy day in BA class, the topic was perceptual mapping and which was much less complex than what we were taught the previous day. Perceptual mapping is a graphics technique that attempts to visually display the perceptions of customers. We were asked to download a small software called Permap which after a little struggle worked fine on our computers, The software was exciting didn’t ask any complex calculations but just a simple upload of data from a notepad. The software is a great tool to visually analyse clusters and also measure distances between them. One fine example we saw was the effect on sales in stores due to different factors. After generating different result through cross tabs I came across surprising results after I plotted it on Permap but it is a lengthy process as the conclusion is fruitful only if u do a lot of crosstabs and then analyse, sir referred to this work as “donkey work” – agreed u better be a donkey than be called an ass for the bad analysis. As I was writing this blog I came across this article on the alternatives to perception mapping such as similarity scaling, factor analysis and discriminant analysis. However most of the interest had been in similarity scaling because of the assumption that similarity measures are more accurate measures of perception than direct attribute ratings despite the fact that similarity techniques are more difficult and expensive to use than factor or discriminant analyses. In practice a market researcher neither has the time or money to apply all three techniques. This technique is one of the most frequently used ones specially when it comes to FMCG products as perception plays a major role in consumer buying decisions for these products.

Raghavendra Pratap Singh- 13031

Finance- Grp 6

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