A review of multidimensional scaling in marketing research

The domain of this review includes the developmentand application of multidimensional scaling(MDS) in product planning; in decisions concerningpricing and branding; in the study of channels of distribution,personal selling, and the effects of advertising; and in research related to the fact finding andanalysis mission of marketing research. In research onproduct planning, specific attention is given to marketstructure analysis, to the development of a master configurationof product perceptions, to the role of individualdifferences, to representing consumer preferences,to issues in market segmentation, and to theuse of asymmetric MDS to study market structure.Regarding fact finding and analysis, this review dealswith issues in data collection such as the responserate, time, and accuracy of judgments; the validity, reliability,and stability of judgments; and the robustnessof data collection techniques and MDS algorithms. Aseparate section on new-product models deals with thedetermination of relevant product markets, the identificationof determinant attributes, the creation of productperceptual spaces, and the modeling of individualor market-segment decision making. Three trends arediscussed briefly; (1) a trend toward finer grained inspectionof individual and group perceptions, (2)atrend toward merging consumer level measurementand market level measurements, and (3) a trend towardthe study of the creation of new markets, ratherthan new products in existing markets.