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What is CPM (Composite Product Mapping)?

Composite Product Mapping (CPM) is a method for analyzing data about respondent perceptions and preferences to produce a "product map." A product map is a graphic representation of the ways people perceive products in terms of underlying attributes, as well as an aid in understanding their preferences.

We use the term "products," but this can refer any collection of objects, concepts, or other ideas that can be described in terms of characteristics or attributes. Examples include:

• Consumer products (toothpaste, lawnmowers, beverages)
• Industrial products (computers, road graders, chemicals)
• Institutions (hospitals, radio stations, restaurants)
• People (political candidates, newscasters, jazz musicians)
• Services (banks, healthcare, Internet Service Providers, cable TV)

Many researchers have been interested in market maps that are better tied to preferences but that still have the interpretability of discriminant- or factor-based perceptual maps. CPM uses data about people's perceptions (ratings of products on attributes) and their preferences (choices among products). The preference data can come from paired probability questions (allocation of preference among pairs of objects) or from conjoint part worths. If you plan to use conjoint preferences, CPM can directly read ACA, CVA, ICE or CBC/HB part worth utility files.

Composite maps often look a good deal like discriminant-based maps, but they are more successful in representing differences in preference. Composite maps offer insurance against poor selection of attributes. If there are attributes that are useful for discriminating among brands in terms of perceptions but that have no explanatory power with respect to preferences, CPM's composite maps will largely ignore those attributes.

CPM can create presentation-quality maps. Below is an example of the output:

Since the dimensions in CPM's maps are chosen to tie closely to preferences, you can also overlay density of demand, where darker areas correspond to relatively higher degrees of average preference:

CPM can analyze data from paper-and-pencil interviews (formatted in flat ASCII files), or from computerized surveys using Ci3. If you use the Ci3 template that comes with CPM, CPM can directly read the necessary data and labels from the Ci3 data file.

CPM requires the Microsoft .NET framework.

For more information, please see the CPM Technical Paper.

CPM System Information

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