If you had a choice (no pun intended) between asking respondents 20 choice questions or just one, which approach would you choose? OK. Now that you’ve picked 20 because you don’t think one choice task is going to yield a sufficiently accurate model, momentarily assume that, with just one choice task per respondent, you could estimate a disaggregate choice model…
The Cake Method© is a unique, proprietary approach to trade-off analysis, developed by MACRO Consulting, Inc., which offers several advantages over other conjoint methods: A large number of product features (50 or more) can be included in the model First order interactions can be estimated at both the disaggregate and aggregate levels There is complete control over the experimental design,…
The Logit-Cake Method© is a unique, proprietary approach to choice-based trade-off analysis, developed by MACRO Consulting, Inc., which offers several advantages over other trade-off methods: A large number of product features (50 or more) can be included in the model The heterogeneity problem long associated with aggregate logit models is avoided The traditional advantages of logit models over conjoint models…
In this paper, we first offer an analytic approach that confirms the existence of the algorithmic component to the number of levels effect for rank-order data. We then describe a second study which demonstrates a practical solution to the number of levels effect, regardless of the source of the effect. Abstract The existence of the number of levels effect (NOL)…
Trade-off analysis is a family of methods by which respondents’ utilities for various product features are measured. This article discusses trade-off analysis, including basic concepts and the four main types of trade-off: conjoint, discrete choice, self-explicated and hybrid. Trade-off analysis is a family of methods by which respondents’ utilities for various product features (usually including price) are measured. In some…
The effect of sample size on model error is examined through several commercial data sets, using five trade-off techniques: ACA, ACA/HB, CVA, HB-Reg and CBC/HB. Using the total sample to generate surrogate holdout cards, numerous subsamples are drawn, utilities estimated and model results compared to the total sample model. Latent class analysis is used to model the effect of sample…
I would like to thank Larry Gibson for his provocative article, What’s Wrong With Conjoint Analysis? Larry makes a valid point, namely, that self-explicated scaling is largely overlooked even though it appears to have valuable potential as a research tool. However, Larry, in his zealous evangelizing of the merits of self-explicated scaling, has frequently and incorrectly criticized conjoint analysis. Further,…
Prior to founding MACRO, Mr. McCullough was the senior vice president for a leading international strategic consulting and design research firm. Before that, he was market research manager for a $300 million division of Levi Strauss & Company.
Mr. McCullough has spoken before the American Marketing Association, the Marketing Research Association and various universities on a wide range of marketing topics. He is a past board member of the American Marketing Association, San Francisco chapter, and has been quoted in Canadian Packaging Magazine. He has chaired and lectured at applied multivariate statistics seminars for several years and is a member of numerous professional associations.