This paper addresses the topic of fragrance development within a fragrance house. Utilising consumer input at the inception of fragrance theme creation assures that the final submission will best meet marketer and consumer expectations.
The paper presents the case of a Dutch theatre facing the problem of revising the range of seat categories, and of setting the ticket prices on the basis of sales records and of consumer demand. Demand was analysed through interviews aiming at finding out consumer perceptions of seats characteristics. "Visibility", "acoustics", "sitting comfort" and "surrounding space" were identified as the main attributes. Their j.n.d.'s were analysed according to Weber-Fechner law. As a result of the study, the number of seat categories was reduced from 9 to 3, and prices were rearranged according to research results and company policy.
This paper introduces - necessarily briefly - OPAS, a system to optimise products and assortments. Basically, two parts can be distinguished. The first part consists of all models related to data collection and conjoint measurement, resulting in an array of values (called utilities) for each attribute level. Starting with traditional conjoint measurement, problems for applications are summarised. For a significant part of these, solutions have been formulated and the implications for the models are shortly indicated. Thus, it is possible to include a large number of attributes and to apply this system to taste-testing. The second part contains models for prediction (including a set of probabilistic choice models) and the routines for optimisation. Since the latter can include constraints (e.g. costs, number of products) a large amount of practically relevant questions can be answered. This is illustrated by a sample of the situations where OPAS has been successfully applied, which is followed by a concluding section on limitations and future extensions.
This paper describes a model of consumer behavior using a combination of evoked brand sets and multi-attribute techniques that not only predict how considers make their decisions, but provide data that can be used by corporate decision makers.