Abstract:

The paper presents a history of how MasterCard, its member banks and MJI have collaborated in Asia Pacific to identify new business opportunities in credit cards, using conjoint measurement as the basic foundation for generating and qualifying business insights. The paper reviews the state of the research business in 1997, when conjoint was just becoming accepted and no Internet was available, to 2004 when conjoint was very accepted and the Internet provided a powerful new medium for easy research fielding. The barriers that emerged in the early studies (novel research, inability to develop ideas), the barriers that emerged with the Internet (lack of Internet facilities), and where the authors believe Asia Pacific will evolve to in the next five years with the research approach will be discussed. The history is illustrated with data to show the evolution of the approach, and the opportunities for the field.