Conjoint Analysis, Essay Example

Introduction

Customer centric marketing provides a method for attracting new customers by identifying their specific needs and wants and developing and marketing products that are specifically targeted for them. This is a critical path as the face of customer marketing continues to expand at significant levels; therefore, it becomes necessary to develop strategic approaches that will encourage businesses to recognize what their customers exactly want and if they have specific preferences that must be accommodated in their product or service choices. However, this is a difficult challenge for many businesses to achieve due to the diverse nature of customer preferences in specific areas. In addition, many customers possess loyalty to specific brands and will not waver from these choices. Therefore, businesses promoting a new brand or product may find it difficult to break into the existing market and attract new customers. The level of effort that is required to conduct customer-centric marketing demonstrates that businesses must be very comfortable with their products and are willing and able to take the risks that are necessary to market these products and services to the masses. In order to accomplish the tasks associated with customer-centric marketing, a series of methods are utilized in an effort to produce successful outcomes and returns for these businesses. One common method is conjoint analysis and will be addressed in the following section.

Analysis

Conjoint analysis is a unique marketing approach that utilizes quantitative analysis in an effort to determine customer preferences to determine if the demand is in place to market a new product or service. It is important to determine these customer preferences during the market/product research phase so that the business has greater insight into the minds of its potential customers and the products that they are currently interested in. This is an important quantitative-based tool that will demonstrate the impact of attracting customers to new products and services by determining what customers are looking to purchase. For example, the clothing and textile industry is generally trend-driven; therefore, a company seeking to market a new type of clothing, shoe or accessory must consider where current trends lie and where they are headed. In addition, the business must seek customer feedback regarding current trends and the future direction of product development. It is critical that a business seek input from its current customer base regarding the potential success or failure of new products because this will demonstrate the impact of new trends and products that will enter the market in the future. In this context, the challenge is to use consumer-centric marketing effectively by creating a product development environment that recognizes what the customer wants to buy rather than what the business wants to sell. This is perhaps the most integral factor in supporting a successful product development strategy over the long term.

Conclusion

Businesses must develop specific marketing-based tools in order to establish successful long-term relationships with their customers. This requires the development of research-based methods that will generate customer feedback using quantitative methods such as customer-centric marketing. This tool will provide businesses with a framework for capturing customer feedback and other market research data in a manner that will drive future product decisions. This is particularly important in the clothing and textiles industry, which is largely driven by trends that change rapidly. Therefore, if a business seeks to develop a new product, it must tap into customer preferences and other activities in order to accomplish the desired market research objectives in order to achieve success during product launches and long-term marketing strategies.

References

Sawtooth Software, “What is conjoint analysis?” Last modified April 2013. http://www.sawtoothsoftware.com/conjoint-analysis-software