Pi-Consulting

Perceptual mapping is a technique based on correspondence analysis of a range of variables. It enables the user to draw a “map”, usually in two dimensions, showing the “location” of brands, media etc. in the “perceptual space” occupied by a range of values or attitudes on the part of the consumer. As first glance, these maps are visually impressive and give the impression that they “explain” the attitudinal impulses that “drive” the market for a given product. The user can home in on particular types of attitude from the range of research responses available, and thereby “focus” the mapping on values and attitudes of a particular type — attitudes to food, for instance, or to financial services.

Attitudinal or perceptual maps certainly have their devotees. They can look great, but their results are unfortunately only as meaningful as the relevance of the attitude questions they are based on. Interpretation can be a very hit-and-miss affair. What do you actually learn from the discovery that your brand is wedged in perceptual space between the statements “Money is the best measure of success”, “Computers confuse me” and “I think of myself as a conservative Christian”? In reality, the relationship between different items on the map is not represented between the apparent proximity of these items one to the other, but by the (usually invisible) “vector”, or angle of separation based on the map’s centre-point. This fact gives rise to a lot of confused interpretations and wrong assumptions about the relationship between brands and attitudes.

Another problem with most perceptual mapping techniques is that they are highly sensitive to the specific choice of attitude variables to be included. A map produced using conventional software will produce what looks like a “stable” result. However, running the same mapping exercise again with the exclusion of just one attitudinal variable will cause the map to “fall sideways”, producing an image that bears almost no visual relation to the foregoing one. This graphic instability can result in frustration, and an overall difficulty in deciding what, if anything, these maps really mean. The conclusion is often that interpretation is impossible, since apples are being compared to oranges.