Response to the commentary Pringle, L. G. 1984. A Comment. Marketing Sci. 3 125–126 on author's paper Rust, R. T., M. I. Alpert. 1984. An audience flow model of television viewing choice. Marketing Sci. 3 113–124.
Comments and authors' rejoinder to Mahajan, V., E. Muller, S. Sharma. 1984. An empirical comparison of awareness forecasting models of new product introduction. Marketing Sci. 3 179–197.
In conjoint analysis, a consumer's utility function for a continuous attribute is usually estimated using a part worth function. However, one may also use continuous functions. The purpose of the paper is to investigate through simulation the combined influence of the number of degrees of freedom, the nature of the “true” utility function and the amount of error in the data on the selection of a utility function. The focus is on functions that are known or expected to be monotone within the range of attribute levels of interest. One can then choose among linear, quadratic and part worth functions. The results show (a) that estimation procedures with monotonicity constraints should be used, and (b) that it is best to use quadratic or part worth functions rather than linear functions to minimize potential losses in predictive validity.
This paper examines the feasibility, practicality, and predictive ability of the consumer model which was proposed by Hauser and Shugan (Hauser, J. R., S. M. Shugan. 1983. Defensive marketing strategies. Marketing Sci. 2 (4, Fall) 319–360). We report results in two product categories, each representing over $100 million in annual sales. We develop “per dollar” perceptual maps and empirical consumer “taste” distributions. As a first test of the model, we compare the predictive ability of the consumer model in one category to (1) pretest market laboratory measurement models, (2) traditional perceptual mapping procedures, (3) a hybrid model using price as an attribute, and (4) actual market shares in test market cities. In the second product category, we illustrate the application of the quantitative model to augment managerial judgment. Besides developing an empirical version of the “Defender” consumer model, our analyses raise a number of behavioral hypotheses worth further investigation.