Analytical Marketing Methods
By Leslie Pratch
When I was getting my M.B.A., I outlined what I considered most useful to digest the curriculum and to help my classmates preparing to interview for consulting firms. Nearly a decade later, I realize these notes may be helpful to first- and second-year M.B.A. students at Chicago Booth (and elsewhere) who are boning up for interviews with consulting firms. I offer them freely and if they are helpful, encourage your use of them, especially if you are pursuing a leadership position in a consulting firm.
Analytical Marketing Methods
(1) Conjoint Analysis: Assess the importance to consumers of a wide variety of product attributes by having consumers evaluate a few products that represent various mixtures of those attributes.
(2) Factor Analysis: Summarize many product variables with a few key factors (e.g., “moist,” “smooth,” “goes down easy,” and other factors may move together when customers evaluate food products, so instead of having three attributes, we combine them into one factor, say, “Easy to eat.” We can then compare products on this one factor).
(3) Cluster analysis: Used to group products or consumers by like characteristics, such as factors identified via factor analysis.
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Leslie Pratch, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist with an M.B.A. in Strategy and Finance and a B.A. in Religion from Williams College. She works with boards of directors and private equity investors to select and develop executives. She can be reached at (312) 464-7919 or email her at leslie@pratchco.com or visit www.pratchco.com.
