Abstract

Conjoint analysis is a multivariate data analysis technique. It is not only used in marketing research as a tool for preference measurement, but also equally adopted by professionals and academic researchers of various other disciplines, such as, human resources, health services etc. A researcher invokes an ‘experiment’ like situation based on ‘factorial design’ to measure an individual’s trade-offs among multi-attribute products / services / situations. It replicates the decision making process very realistically. However, its use is limited to objective criteria to evaluate a product or service. For example, how do various price levels influence a preference model of a consumer in the presence of other variables of interest? The purpose of the presentation is to highlight the use of conjoint analysis derived from subjective characteristics of decision making process. The illustration is taken from consumer socialization framework where social factors affect buying decision making process of young consumers.