Conjoint Analysis: A Primer

Say, you're developing a new product. One thing you'll want to know is how important various features of a product or service of that type are to consumers. We often try to get at this by asking respondents directly in focus groups or quantitative surveys, but this may mislead us because many people have difficulty answering questions such as these. In surveys, for example, many will claim that just about everything about a product is important. Instead, what conjoint does is force respondents to make trade-offs.