In this paper we examine the theoretical and empirical issues that arise for a decision maker who wishes to use the target population's preferences as an input for designing new products and services. The marketing literature suggests using essentially the same approach as that for the problem,...

The authors report an empirical regularity in the market shares of brands. They propose a theoretical explanation for this observed regularity and identify additional consequences of their explanation. Empirical testing of these consequences supports the proposed explanation. The empirical...