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Understanding Conjoint Analysis: A Comprehensive Guide for Market Researchers

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What is Conjoint Analysis?

Conjoint analysis is an effective market research technique that helps businesses understand customer preferences by creating hypothetical product and price scenarios. This statistical method captures respondents’ preferences and intentions by asking them to evaluate different combinations of product features, services, and pricing options. Conjoint analysis in marketing research enables companies to simulate what potential buyers would choose in various “what-if” product and price scenarios, making it an essential tool for strategic decision making.

At their core, conjoint analysis surveys present respondents with multiple product concepts that vary across different attributes (such as features, price, brand, etc.) and ask them to choose their preferred option or rank them in order of preference. This conjoint survey methodology reveals the relative importance customers place on different product attributes and helps determine the customer-perceived benefit of products and features for various market segments.

When to Use Conjoint Analysis

Conjoint analysis is particularly valuable when businesses need to make complex product development, pricing, or positioning decisions. Here are key scenarios where it makes sense to use conjoint analysis:

  • Product Development and Innovation: Use conjoint analysis to accelerate product development by understanding which features customers value most. This helps in developing new products and services or updating existing products based on changing customer needs and determining the unique value each feature adds to the product.
  • Pricing Strategy: Conjoint analysis for pricing is essential when you need to understand willingness to pay and optimize pricing strategies. Conjoint pricing analysis helps determine the best price for a new or existing product by measuring how price changes impact customer preference and purchase likelihood.
  • Market Competitiveness: Deploy conjoint value analysis to optimize market competitiveness by gaining market share and improving overall margin per customer by scoping the best feature and price mix. This is particularly useful when entering competitive markets or defending market position.
  • Market Segmentation: Conjoint analysis in marketing helps identify distinct customer segments with different preference patterns, enabling targeted product development and marketing strategies.
  • Feature Prioritization: When resources are limited, conjoint analysis research helps prioritize which features to include in products based on their perceived value to customers, rather than internal assumptions.

Conjoint Analysis Example

Let’s examine a conjoint analysis survey example for a software company developing a new project management tool:

Survey Design: The conjoint analysis survey design includes four key attributes:

  • Price levels: $15/month, $25/month, $35/month
  • Integration capabilities: basic, advanced, enterprise-level
  • User interface: standard, customizable, AI-powered
  • Support options: email only, phone + email, 24/7 premium support

Survey Implementation: Respondents are shown multiple product concepts combining different levels of these attributes. For example:

  • Concept A: $25/month, advanced integration, AI-powered interface, phone + email support
  • Concept B: $15/month, basic integration, standard interface, email support
  • Concept C: $35/month, enterprise integration, customizable interface, 24/7 premium support

Conjoint Analysis Survey Questions: Participants are asked to choose their preferred option from each set or rank the concepts in order of preference. The survey might include 12 to 16 such choice scenarios to capture sufficient data for analysis.

Results and Insights: The analysis reveals that customers value integration capabilities most (40% importance), followed by price (30%), user interface (20%), and support options (10%). Additionally, willingness-to-pay conjoint analysis shows that customers will pay a premium of $8/month for advanced integration features but only $3/month extra for AI-powered interfaces.

Business Application: Using the intuitive simulator provided by conjoint analysis tools, the company can easily design new product concepts, change features or prices, and simulate which customer segments will be most likely to buy. The impact of feature or price changes on customer preference is simulated in real time, enabling optimal product and pricing decisions.

Conclusion and Key Takeaways

Conjoint analysis represents a sophisticated yet accessible approach to understanding customer preferences and optimizing product-market fit. What conjoint analysis is used for extends far beyond simple preference measurement. It’s a strategic tool that transforms how businesses approach product development, pricing, and market positioning.

Key Benefits of Conjoint Analysis:

  • Customer-Centric Decision Making: Understand customer needs by simulating real-world purchase decisions rather than relying on stated preferences alone.
  • Pricing Optimization: Determine optimal pricing strategies through willingness-to-pay analysis and price-sensitivity measurement.
  • Feature Validation: Identify which product features truly drive customer value and purchase intent.
  • Competitive Intelligence: Simulate competitive scenarios and identify opportunities for differentiation.
  • Market Segmentation: Discover distinct customer segments with different preference patterns.

Best Practices for Conjoint Analysis Surveys:

  • Design realistic product scenarios that reflect actual market conditions.
  • Include relevant attributes that influence customer decision making.
  • Ensure adequate sample sizes for reliable statistical analysis.
  • Partner with experienced research teams who understand conjoint methodology.
  • Use intuitive analysis tools that enable real-time scenario simulation.

Why Choose GLG Conjoint Analysis Research

Conjoint analysis in marketing research has evolved from a complex statistical technique to an accessible, powerful tool for strategic decision making. With GLG’s painless data analysis and user-friendly simulators, businesses can now easily evaluate what-if scenarios for their own products or competitors’, customize research design to specific business questions, and determine a feature’s added value as perceived by customers.

For organizations looking to make data-driven product and pricing decisions, GLG conjoint analysis provides the customer with the insights needed to succeed in competitive markets while optimizing both customer satisfaction and business profitability.

Other Recommended Resources:

Download the free eBook: A Fast Guide to Conjoint Analysis: a Survey Technique That Produces Results

Video: Using Conjoint Methods to Capture Customer Value

Case Study: How to Uncover Customer Preferences and Willingness to Pay with a Conjoint Survey

Case Study: Using Conjoint Analysis to Optimize Service and Price for a B2B Sales Platform

Video: GLG Conjoint Analysis in Action

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Speaker Biographies

Hilary Malone PhD, has over 25 years of experience in global drug development, regulatory &government affairs, manufacturing and commercialization within the biopharma industry. Hilary hassignificant board level and executive committee experience including large scale organizationalrestructuring/transformation/integration, major M&A, biotech start-up, capital raising, investorrelations and pre-IPO.​

Hilary is currently CEO of Stylus Medicine, a private genetic medicine biotech company. Previously sheserved as CEO of a Series-A neuroscience company. Prior to these roles, Hilary served as COO & EVP atValo Health Inc., Chief Regulatory Officer & SVP at Sanofi Inc., and Chief Regulatory Officer & SVP atPfizer and Wyeth. Previous experience also includes senior regulatory and drug development roles atReata Pharmaceuticals Inc., AstraZeneca plc and GlaxoSmithKline plc.​

Hilary also serves on the Board of Directors of Hansa Biopharma and Adthera Bio. Hilary holds a PhD inMolecular Neuropharmacology and a BSc in Physiology.

Dr. Thomas Lönngren is Director at his own company PharmaExec Consulting AB. He is the Chairman of the Board of directors at Egetis Therapeutics AB, Sweden. Dr Lönngren also serves as board member at Compass Pathways PLC, London UK and NDA Group, Sweden. He acts as advisor to the following companies and organizations: NDA group, Sweden, Sweden, Artis Venture, San Francisco, US, Fujimoto Japan, Skin2Neuron Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia, US, Special advisor to the Centre for Innovation in Regulatory Science (CIRS), London UK. From 2001 until2011, Mr.Lönngren served as the Executive Director of the European Medical Agency. He was previously Deputy General Director of the Swedish Medical Product Agency until 2000. He has a degree in pharmacy and MSc in Social and Regulatory Pharmacy from Uppsala University. He is also an Honorary Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Great Britain, Honorary Doctorate from the University of Uppsala, Honorary Doctorate from University of Bath, UK.

Speaker Biographies

Marie-Anne Aymerich

Marie-Anne has built a portfolio of senior advisory and non-executive roles, following a successful international career in the FMCG and Luxury sectors. She is a non-executive director of Haleon, a FTSE100 company listed in 2022 after the demerger from GSK. She is also chairwoman of Haleon Environment and Societal Sustainability committee. She is the executive director of the Pierre Fabre Group where she also sits on the Strategic Committee, and she is a Board Member of The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, one of the world’s most prestigious chamber orchestras. She is also an angel investor and focuses her time and investments on start-ups with the strongest purpose and impact.

Marie-Anne is also a regular lecturer at HEC Paris on purposeful leadership, and she has created a serious game called “Planet Purpose” to upskill people on sustainability and purpose. Throughout her 35year executive career she delivered a strong track-record of business performance and growth in brands and portfolio in both developed and emerging economies.

As a senior leader with Unilever, she led a number of different personal care categories across France, Spain and the USA – including managing the Dove brand worldwide and culminating in leading Unilever’s global Oral Care division. She also worked for LVMH as Brand General Manager of Dior Perfumes and Cosmetics worldwide. Marie-Anne was also Vice-President of Imagine for Margo – Children with Cancer for ten years, a charity she helped found in 2011 with the goal of eradicating children’s cancer. The charity is the #1 charity focused on child cancer in France and has fundraised more than €14m since its creation. Marie-Anne is a graduate from HEC Paris. She is married and has two children aged 29 and 26.

Patrick Jephson

Patrick Jephson is a consultant, journalist, broadcaster and New York Times bestselling author, based in Washington D.C. He is a published authority on corporate and personal branding and crisis communications, addressing conferences worldwide as well as events at the U.S. State Department, the American University and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

With more than twenty-five years’ experience in the government, luxury and family office sectors, Patrick’s portfolio has included globally admired brands as well as national agencies and NGOs. He has also worked on reputation and legacy briefs with European, Middle Eastern and Asian families, including royalty. He now writes, presents, and advises on factual and drama TV programs, appearing on every major American and many international networks. He was recently an expert consultant to the award-winning Netflix series The Crown and provided live commentary on the Coronation of King Charles.

Patrick owes much of his practical communications and protocol experience to Princess Diana, who chose him to be her equerry and only private secretary/chief of staff. He served the Princess for eight years, responsible for all aspects of her public life, global humanitarian initiatives, and private organization. Having worked for an internationally high-profile woman (and as the father of two professionally successful daughters) he feels a special affinity for cross-cultural, gender and perception issues.

Patrick was born and raised in Ireland and holds a master’s degree in political science from Cambridge University. As an officer in the British Royal Navy, he served all over the world before being selected for royal duty. He is a citizen of the U.K., U.S.A., Ireland, and Canada.