Page 52 - Decoding Decisions ~ Making sense of the messy middle

52 CHAPTER 4 INFLUENCING THE MESSY MIDDLE

Typically a conjoint analysis compares the importance of a range of tangible
features or benefits to a proposition, but the points of variance in our test
would be the presence and relative strength of the cognitive biases. Conjoint
studies can be delivered in a range of formats, but for our purposes we chose
to create a generic, unbranded website which would situate participants’
decision-making within a familiar context.

Before the simulation began, shoppers were asked to share their first and
second favourite brands from a selection within a specific category. These

preferences then became the basis of the simulation, with the shoppers
asked to choose between pairs of brands to which some or all of our six
biases had been applied. Using this method, we were able to measure the
preference of brand versus brand on a level playing field, and test the power
of each bias to switch preference from favoured to less-favoured brands.

We were able to measure the preference of

brand vs. brand on a level playing field, and test

the power of each bias to switch preference

from favoured to less‑favoured brands.

A few limitations

There are, of course, a couple of real-world variables that our simulation
can’t account for. Price is often a determining factor in purchase decisions,
especially where there is a large degree of difference between options.
As such, the shoppers who participated in our research were told that the
products and services they were considering were priced at the current
expected market value, eliminating price as a variable.

The second complicating variable in the simulation is to do with brand
building. Once in the simulation, shoppers were exposed to full-colour
graphical logos of their preferred brands. Any pre-existing associations
between our shoppers and those brands (what our marketing model terms
“exposure”) remained active throughout the simulation.