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By Jeff Cartwright-Smith, Ph.D., Vice President,
Marketing Science, GfK Market Measures
“Whatever you do, just don’t bring perceptual maps in here,”
my client warned. “Nobody can figure the things out, and they
just irritate my management.”
I had asked for some guidance on our positioning study’s final
report and presentation, and I was glad for the advice. But I was disappointed
in the reaction. Perceptual maps are a great tool for ATUs—for
any study where competitive positioning is an issue, and that
is most of strategic marketing.
On the way to lunch, I noticed my client’s prominent GPS display.
“Yeah, I’d be lost without it. I wouldn’t go anywhere
unfamiliar without GPS or road maps.”
So it wasn’t maps per se that were uninterpretable. It was just
perceptual maps. Sure enough, over lunch my client revealed that vendors
had been bringing in correspondence maps, discriminant maps, multidimensional
scaling maps—all with unique and baffling rules for their interpretation.
Brands plotted next to each other were dramatically different on many
attributes. Nearly identical attributes were found on opposite sides
of the maps. Dimensions blossomed like menacing sea urchins. Dimensions
and brands crowded together for attention.
No wonder this client hated perceptual maps!
Navigation maps, like road maps, are wonderful tools all of us can appreciate.
They have been universally understood for 4,000 years because they adhere
to certain ground rules.
What are the ground rules of maps?
1. Attributes, like directions, have infinite length. They belong on
the map
periphery. Brands, like cities, are points. They
belong inside the map.
2. To recover how a city scores on a direction, drop a perpendicular.
To recover
how a brand scores on an attribute or a dimension,
drop a perpendicular.
3. Directions on the map—the compass points—are related
to each other in
familiar ways.
- North and South are opposites. Scores measuring movement (meters
or latitude degrees) in the North and in the South direction would
correlate -1.00.
- North and East are orthogonal. Movement on one is unrelated to
the other. Scores for movement along due North and East correlate
0.
 To
recover how a city scores on a dimension (direction), drop a perpendicular.
- Cities that are similar on all dimensions are located near each
other.
- Dimensions (directions) that are similar have an acute
angle between them.
- Dimensions that are unrelated are perpendicular.
- Dimensions that are opposites are on opposite sides.
- In general: The cosine of the angle between directions
= the correlation between the directions.
Like reading instructions for throwing a ball, we may find these ground
rules odd to see written out, but only because we know them intuitively.
Perceptual maps have power as an explanatory device when they borrow
from the power of navigational maps. To the extent that perceptual maps
play by the common rules of navigational maps, they are immensely powerful
explanatory tools for those looking to navigate their brands. But when
maps play fast and loose with the ground rules, they mislead and frustrate.
When marketing a brand, there are vital issues to understand, such as:
- How is my brand
viewed by the market? How are my competitors viewed?
- What are the dimensions that distinguish the brands?
- On what dimension(s) is my brand distinguished
from my competitors?
- Who are my close competitors, as viewed by the
market?
- Which competitors do not really compete with my
brand at all?
- How are the perceptual dimensions related to each
other?
All these questions can best be addressed with
good perceptual maps.
Example – Physicians
were asked to rate five products across the following 12 attributes
on a rating scale:
- Appropriate for atherosclerosis
- Has convenient dosing
- Proven to be safe and well tolerated
- Has proven benefit in risk reduction
- Proven to be efficacious in protecting against X
- Proven to be efficacious in protecting against Y
- Is appropriate for chronic (long-term) treatment
- Has high managed care acceptance
- Provides a lot of value for the money
- Is an agent/therapy with which I have extensive clinical experience
- Can be used safely and effectively along with Q
- Efficacious in patients with Z condition
The 60 ratings could be reported on line charts or bar charts (below),
but the findings may not be easy for management to process effectively.
Many of management’s brand positioning issues listed previously
can’t be answered with this display technique.
But a positioning map can represent these data in a clear, easily
understood format. First we can look at the factors underlying the
raw attributes. In this case, there are two orthogonal factors: Familiarity
and a combined Efficacy, Utility
and Safety factor.
We can easily see that Brand F is seen as familiar and efficacious
and safe. Brands B and D are promising but not yet familiar. A is
familiar but not efficacious or safe; R is positioned poorly. Brand
means can be inferred by dropping a perpendicular to the dimension.
We may prefer to see the raw attributes plotted instead of the underlying
factor dimensions. Now we can see that “Extensive experience,”
“Good value for the money” and “High managed care
acceptance” are all highly correlated—which makes sense.
Again, brand means can be read by dropping a perpendicular to each.
For example, F scores best on “Appropriate for chronic treatment,”
B and D are next, then A, then R.
The data above are actually from one wave of a three-wave study. Below
are the results of brand ratings from three waves, marked 1, 2 and
3. Arrows show the movement that is occurring over time from waves
1 to 3. Brand D is becoming slightly stronger on several perceived
safety and efficacy measures, while Brands A and R are moving in the
other direction. Perceptions of Brand F have not changed.
Imagine trying to display 180 brand means via tables, bar charts or
line charts! Only maps can depict brands in the same perceptual space,
or show unoccupied space or show the correlations among the attributes.
“Good value” and “Safe and well tolerated,”
for example, are perceived as independent characteristics among brands
in this space, since they are at approximately 90 degrees from each
other.
Some companies choose to show attributes as vectors of variable length
(perhaps showing standard deviations as vector lengths.) We feel this
is a mistake. Remember who your audience is. If they are not advanced
mapping experts, you will make the map both cluttered and confusing.
Other than for polar explorers, directions in maps do not have an
end point—they are of infinite length and are usually shown
at the periphery of the map. Our experience suggests that even sophisticated
readers will be misled by showing attributes of varying lengths.
Marketers should not be denied the benefits of a superb marketing
tool like mapping. Play by the rules of mapping, have some compassion
for your audience, and you will find you can successfully convert
management to actively using perceptual maps for almost every brand
strategy challenge.
Our marketers don’t drive into unknown territory without maps.
We can help make sure they don’t navigate their brands blindly,
too!
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