3.5
Perceptual Mapping
A spatial representation of how customers perceive competing brands, derived from survey data, used to locate unoccupied positions.
No single originator; from multidimensional scaling brought into marketing by Green and colleagues, c.1970–72
What it does
Places brands in a low-dimensional space derived from how customers actually perceive them, making empty regions visible.
When it breaks
You choose the axes, so you can manufacture whichever gap you want. Unbounded by survey data it is wishful thinking — and the empty space is usually empty because nobody wants what is there.
Case
Marriott's Courtyard programme used perceptual and preference mapping to locate an unoccupied gap between full-service and budget hotels, with conjoint then designing the product to fit it. Worth separating the two halves: the map found the gap, the conjoint built the room (see 6.3).
Interfaces — Courtyard by Marriott ↗Diagram — not yet drawn
The same brand set plotted twice on two different pairs of axes, producing two different “obvious” gaps — the failure mode as the diagram.
In the wild
Unvetted · not part of the tier assessment
What has been written about this tool in the last twelve months. Machine-retrieved and unchecked — everything above this line was checked.
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