The Laws of Choice

Paul Schregel Former Senior Vice-President, Americas, Scott Paper Company Eric Marder has a way of taking concepts that are often vague in other hands, discarding the fluff, and producing a simple, sharp picture of any subject with which he deals. Senior executives who want to make money will find gems in this book. Using the thinking and tools described here, we increased earnings from consumer brands sold in the U.S. from under $50 million to over $150 million—in just a few years! Betty Sproule Strategic Planning Manager, Hewlett-Packard Company A landmark in the state of global thinking about marketing, marketing research, and how customers make choices. The laws and principles Eric Marder formulates will serve as guideposts for the next era of marketing via electronic media. William R. Bondurant Vice President, Business Information, AT& T Wireless Services, INC. Brilliantly clear on all the major issues with which marketers are concerned. Dennis Q. Murphy, Director Worldwide Marketing Communications Research, IBM Rarely does deep insight intersect so completely with hard data. In this extremely readable book, Eric derives remarkable conclusions about buyer behavior from a database unparalleled in business and unaffordable in academia. Tony Adams Principal Marketing, The Vanguard Group Hooray for Eric Marder! He has pioneered a most accurate and predictive understanding of consumer behavior. It works.

Eric Marder is Chairman of Eric Marder Associates, Inc., a marketing research and consulting firm he founded in 1960. The company specializes in "Choice Research," a term Marder uses to distinguish the discipline presented in this book from traditional marketing research. His client list through the years has included American Home Products, AT&T, Campbell Soup, CBS, General Foods, General Mills, GTE, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Scott Paper, Xerox, and others. He is married and lives in Manhattan.

CONTENTS Preface Acknowledgments To the Reader PART I: THE FOUNDATIONS Chapter 1: MARKETING AND CHOICE A Personal Note Nomenclature Desires and Beliefs The Primary Topics Accessibility The Choice Process Marketing Strategy The Eight Tools of Marketing Chapter 2: DEFINING CHOICE RESEARCH Chapter 3: FIRST PRINCIPLES OF CHOICE RESEARCH Analysis Interface with the Marketer Chapter 4: THE FIRST LAW: THE LAW OF CONGRUENCE Constructing Questions The Law PART II: INTEGRATED OFFERS Chapter 5: MEASURING CHOICE The Measuring Instrument STEP Share and Market Share Aggregate and Individual Data Individual STEP Scores and Buying Chapter 6: PRICE TESTING Some Specific Studies The STEP Database The Price-Demand Relationship Chapter 7: CONCEPT TESTING Durables Consumables Line Extensions and Cannibalization Chapter 8: PRODUCT TESTING The Product Testing Grid Blind and Identified Tests Chapter 9: PAIRED COMPARISONS Theoretical Considerations An Experiment The Antecedent Effect Chapter 10: DESERVED SHARE Product-STEP Uncoupling The Case for Blind versus Identified Tests Two Experiments Product Differences What's in a Name Chapter 11: WHAT STEP MEASURES Chapter 12: BEYOND PRODUCT CATEGORY BOUNDARIES VEST for Durables VEST for Consumables VEST-STEP PART III: THE STRUCTURE OF CHOICE Chapter 13: THE ANATOMY OF QUESTIONS Beliefs Desirability An Interjection About "Improving" Brands The Numeric Scale The Unbounded Write-In Scale Brand Choice Direct Rank Chapter 14: THE SECOND LAW: THE LAW OF PRIMACY Desirability and Choice The Tie Matrix Desirability-Rank and Choice Product Category Differentiation PART IV: SYNTHESIZED OFFERS Chapter 15: STRUGGLING TO SEE THE OBVIOUS The Strategy Planning Program The Diagnostic Problem A New Look at An Old Problem Chapter 16: THE PARTITIONING OF CHOICE Topics and Attributes parDesires and Beliefs An Illustrative Three-Person Market The SUMM What-If Game Chapter 17: CONSTRUCTING THE MAP Levels of Generality Sequence Analysis The Attribute-Definition Pretest The Primary Topics Chapter 18: TWISTS AND TURNS IN MEASURING THE DESIRABILITY OF ATTRIBUTES The Top-Attribute Method The Meaning of Topic Weights The Multiple-Attribute Method The Integrated Method The Absolute Method Chapter 19: DYNAMIC ASSESSMENTS The Pricing Study The Spectrum Study The Fully-Modeled Comparison Conclusions About the Integrated and Absolute Methods Variants of SUMM Chapter 20: THE SYNTHESIS OF STEP AND SUMM Tie-SUMM The Tie Interval Empirical Consequences of Tie Scoring Chapter 21: BRAND POSITIONING Positioning a New Brand Repositioning an Established Brand Customer Satisfaction PART V: MESSAGE DELIVERY Chapter 22: MEASURING ADVERTISING Chapter 23: MEASURING PRINT ADS The POST Program The Environment The Effect of a Single Ad A Factorial Design Negative Effects Color versus Black and White Ad-STEP The Universal Ad Chapter 24: MEASURING TELEVISION COMMERCIALS Conscious Persuasion TV-STEP The Criss-Cross Design Chapter 25: MEASURING TELEVISION CAMPAIGNS Defining the Problem The Ad-Weight Design Some Case Histories The Cumulative Results Implications The Generic Advertising-Response Curve Advertising-Response Curves With Dips Flighting Chapter 26: THE THIRD LAW: THE LAW OF PERSISTENCE Nonadvertising Periods Decay and Persistence Chapter 27: BUDGET ALLOCATION ACROSS BRANDS SUMMING UP The Problems The Core Variables The Principles The Laws A Closing Comment APPENDIX A: Computation of VEST Penetration B: The Variance and Sensitivity of STEP and First-Choice Share C: The Tie-Share Vector and the Frequency Vector D: Implications of the STEP-SUMM Slope E: The Sensitivity of the Integrated and Absolute Methods F: Variants of SUMM G: Competitive Frame Reduction H: Share and Countershare Partition I: The Television Version of the Universal Ad J: The Contaminated Criss-Cross Tests K: The Collection a