Which Conjoint Should I Use?

Conjoint analysis has become one of the most widely used quantitative tools in marketing research. According to recent surveys, the estimate is that around 8,000 to 10,000 conjoint studies are conducted each year by customers of sawtooth software (which produces conjoint analysis software) alone. When used properly, it provides reliable and useful results. There are multiple conjoint methods. As seen in one of the previous blogs, various types of conjoint are as follows:

1) CSC – Card Sort conjoint (a traditional conjoint technique)

2) ACA – Adaptive conjoint analysis

3) CBC – choice based conjoint

4) ACBC – Advanced Choice based conjoint

It is not an easy task to choose one of the methods of conjoint that adequately reflects how buyers make decisions in the actual marketplace. This includes not only the competitive context, but the way in which products are described (text), displayed (multi-media or physical prototypes), and considered.

Some key decision areas and how they affect choice of conjoint method are as follows:

1) Number of Attributes: If you need to study many attributes (especially eight or more), ACA historically was considered a solid approach. More recently, ACBC seems more effective—especially for projects involving price as an attribute. Three or fewer attributes would favor CBC.

2) Mode of Interviewing: In many cases, survey populations don't have access to computers. If your study must be administered paper-and-pencil, first consider using CBC; with CSC also being a option under conditions of very small sample size (see below).

3) Sample Size: If you are dealing with relatively small sample sizes (especially less than 100), you should be cautious about using CBC, unless respondents are able to answer more than the usual number of choice tasks. ACBC and the older ratings-based approaches (such as ACA and CSC) are able to stabilize estimates using relatively smaller samples than CBC. If interviewing must be done on paper, and very small sample sizes are the norm, consider CSC.

4) Interview Time: If you only have a few minutes to use in conjoint questions, CBC is a good alternative, though you may need to compensate for the limited information from each individual by sharply increasing the sample size. With about eight or more minutes available, ACBC is feasible.

5) Pricing Research: If studying price, CBC and ACBC are generally preferred.

By:

M Aditya kiran (13064),

Operations group 3