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PERCEPTUAL MAPS OF SMART PHONES WITH MULTI-DIMENSIONAL SCALING

ANALYSIS

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April. 2016. Vol. 6, No.5 ISSN 2307-227X
International Journal of Research In Social Sciences
© 2013-2014 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

PERCEPTUAL MAPS OF SMART PHONES WITH

MULTI-DIMENSIONAL SCALING ANALYSIS
1
TUBA YUMUSAK, 2 KADRI GOKHAN YILMAZ, 3 AYBEGUM GUNGORDU

1
Specialist, Department of Business Administration, Gazi University, Turkey
2
Assistant Prof., Department of Business Administration, Gazi University, Turkey
3
Research Assistant, Department of Business Administration, Gazi University, Turkey
E-mail: 1 t_tokucoglu@hotmail.com, 2 kgyilmaz@gazi.edu.tr, 3 aybegum.gungordu@gazi.edu.tr

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, consumers become more selective and informed about goods and services with the development
of the communication tools. Companies increase their product range in order to reach more consumers.
Increment of the variety of products raises the competition in the market. Therefore, companies need a
powerful marketing plan and strategy in this intense competition. At this point, product positioning that
requires knowledge about the market and consumers are becoming more important for companies.
Perceptual maps are important tools in the product positioning process to determine perceptions of
consumers about a product. This paper demonstrates preferred qualifications by consumers and the
perception map of smart phones. In many studies, Factor Analysis used for creating perceptual maps of the
brands. This paper differentiated from literature by utilizing Multi-Dimensional Scaling Method for
creating perceptual map of smart phones.

Keywords: Perceptual maps, smart phone, multi-dimensional scaling.

1. INTRODUCTION Perceptual maps show the location of the products

The usage of smart phones and internet is getting in consumers’ mind graphically into two
extended. As a result of this, consumers are dimensions. It enables a company to inform how a
involved in more informed and selective consumer perceives competition of the products
consumption. The companies increase their goods relative to product of the company and taking the
and services’ diversity to reach much more marketing actions (Crane et al., 2006).
consumers. At this point, one of the marketing
planning factor gains prominence which is product Smart phones which are self-renewal constantly
positioning. according to the needs and demands of the
consumers are often followed by the younger
A successful marketing strategy depends on generation. In this study, it will be observed that
differentiation, market orientation and cost among five smartphone brands (iPhone, Samsung,
reduction (Dalrymple and Parsons, 1995). The LG, HTC, Sony), which brand is the most preferred
fundamentals of product positioning are by the students of Gazi University. We will
differentiation and market orientation. For investigate the preferences of the students in
companies, positioning is the effort of taking consideration of the five smartphones’
specific and unique position in the market specifications and develop the perceptual map of
(Zineldin, 1996). Perceptual maps illustrate the five smartphones brands.
position of a product in the market and they are also
the most important tools in the product positioning From this point, this study is structured as follows:
process. in Section 2 we present a basic literature review to
show importance of positioning and perceptual
Product positioning provides an evaluation of the maps and lastly, Section 3 illustrate the
advantages and disadvantages of the product. development process of the perceptual map with
Companies should consider how consumers using Multi-Dimensional Scaling Analysis.
perceive their products with this evaluation.
Furthermore, consumers benefit from this view to
be informed about the features of the product.
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International Journal of Research In Social Sciences
© 2013-2014 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.2. Perceptual Maps

2.1. Positioning Perceptual maps are often used to discover
insightful strategies. Bhatnagar and Ghose (2004)
Positioning is a term which was presented in the used perceptual maps to display the result of
article, whose topic is “Positioning is a Game segmenting web shoppers' behaviors who are
Which People Play in Impersonators Market of shopping online or making cost collation on web.
Today.” The article is in the book which is named Vanlaar et al. (2008) examined the effective factors
“Industrial Marketing” written by Al Ries and Jack for the degree of the attention of the individuals.
Trout in 1969. Afterwards, this article was Their goal is to create a perceptual map to explain
transformed to the book which is named the public concerns about dangerous driving
“Positioning: War for your Brain”. Reis and Trout behaviors. Bose and Gupta (2013) utilized a
stated that an improvement is generated from three perceptual map to present the experimental results
stages which are product age, image age and based on ratings given by customers of three public
positioning age (Congram and Friedman, 1991; sector banks and three new generation private
Fill, 1995). banks. All of these methods use a perceptual map to
show the result obtained from questionnaires.
The period in 1970s is called the “positioning age”.
This period occurred by increasing the competitive Perceptual map which is one of the product
environment. In this competitive environment, the positioning tools is obtained through Multi-
companies were involved into the process which Dimensional Scaling (MDS) Method. Multi-
provides products or brands of the companies that Dimensional Scaling Method is a significant
was perceived in a different way from product or analysis because it shows the minimum possible
brands of the companies’ competitors (Uner and size of the object on a visual map by using the real
Alkibay, 2001). distance of the objects. The outcomes are similar to
the original shape because of using real distances
A key to positioning a product effectively is the when positioning the objects and therefore Multi-
perceptions of consumers. In determining a Dimensional Scaling Method is a reliable analysis
product’s position and the preferences of (Ozdamar, 1999).
consumers, companies obtain three types of data
from consumers (Crane et al., 2006) such as: The analysis is utilized for determining the number
 Identification of the important attributes for a of the size of the product or brand in the mind of
product class the target consumers, denominating these sizes,
 Judgments of existing brands with respect to positioning the objects and detecting the location of
these important attributes the ideal product or brand. One of the important
 Ratings of an “ideal” brand’s attributes point that should be considered while using Multi-
Dimensional Scaling Method is determining the
Brand positioning is regarded as a key tool for number of the stimulant. Number of stimulant
brand implementation in competitive markets should be enough for the objective answers of the
(Aaker 1996; Hooley et al. 1998; Kotler 2000). responders and obtaining a sufficient reliable result,
Positioning is the act of designing an organization’s therefore, responders’ mind will not be confused.
offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in Generally, the number of stimulant is preferred
the target market’s mind (Kotler, 2000). between 6 and 13. 7 stimulants were given place in
our project. These stimulants are weight, resolution,
In the current study, we built a perceptual map to screen size, price, ease of use, design and strength.
position products developed by a company and its
competitors to gain valuable insights from As using Multi-Dimensional Scaling Method, one
consumer reviews. A perceptual map is a diagram should pay attention to which technique gives more
which visually displays the perception of reliable results. 3 techniques can be utilized while
consumers. It is helpful for a company to develop using this analysis (Hair et al., 1998): Complete
new products or rebrand products since the map Metric Technique, Incomplete Metric Technique
clearly shows the positions of products in and Semi Metric Technique. In our research, Semi
comparison with those of competitors (Lee et al., Metric Technique which is the most preferred
2016). technique by the researchers and gives the most
reliable results is used. In Semi Metric Technique,
non-metric input data is used and as a result of this,
a metric graphical arrangement is obtained.
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April. 2016. Vol. 6, No.5 ISSN 2307-227X
International Journal of Research In Social Sciences
© 2013-2014 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

Table 2 shows the degrees of preference of

Netzer et al. (2012) presented a method to analyze smartphones according to their properties. Seven
market-structure surveillance and built a perceptual properties of smartphones are weight, resolution,
map to show the result. Since most perceptual maps screen size, price, ease of use, design and strength.
use two attributes to present the results, Green It seems that iPhone is the most preferred
(1975) proposed a multi-dimensional scaling smartphone when we evaluate the smartphones by
method to resolve such a problem and visualize considering their weights. When we look at the
multiple attributes in a two-dimensional graph. resolution property, it is seen that iPhone is superior
The main goal of MDS is to create a perceptual to other smartphone brands. The most preferred
map where in the space between objects fully fit to brand is Samsung considering the screen size.
changes in perceptions. Therefore, MDS is Furthermore, Samsung is a prior brand among other
convenient to examine sensed resemblances and smart phones when we look at their price and ease
variations (Vanlaar et al., 2008). of use. Lastly, we can see that consumers prefer
iPhone for its design and strength properties.
3. METHODOLOGY
As a consequence of the global smartphone market Table 2. Degree of the Preference of Smartphones’
has grown quickly in recent years, we evaluate our Properties
method by using the consumer reviews of Degree of Preference
smartphones. Initially, we introduce the datasets. Weight HTC 3.41
Secondly, we evaluate the clustering and the iPhone 2.26
preference degrees of smartphones. Finally, we LG 3.09
present the analytical results. Samsung 2.47
Sony 3.76
3.1. Sampling Resolution HTC 3.66
In the current study, the sample consists of the iPhone 1.84
students in Business Department of Gazi LG 3.15
University. Simple Random Sampling Method was Samsung 2.47
used in the selection of the sample. Majority of the Sony 3.88
determined consumer group is formed from young Screen Size HTC 3.57
population. Therefore, in order to provide the iPhone 2.67
reliability of the research, people who are the part LG 2.98
of the sampling was chosen from the university
Samsung 2.03
students. Furthermore, in the research, data was
Sony 3.73
gathered by utilizing Face to Face Survey Method.
Price HTC 3.31
The survey was applied to 400 students.
iPhone 2.98
3.2. Multi-Dimensional Scaling LG 2.90
In Table 1, it can be seen that the most preferred Samsung 2.17
smartphone brand by the survey respondents is Sony 3.63
Samsung. We wanted from repliers to give 1 to the Ease of Use HTC 3.67
most preferred brand and 5 to the least preferred iPhone 2.40
brand. We observed that the first preferred LG 3.10
smartphone brand is Samsung, the second preferred Samsung 1.91
brand is LG, the third preferred brand is iPhone, the Sony 3.92
fourth preferred brand is HTC and the fifth Design HTC 3.63
preferred brand is Sony. iPhone 1.94
LG 3.16
Table 1. Degree of Preference of the Smartphones Samsung 2.45
Degree of Preference Sony 3.81
iPhone 2.95 Strength HTC 3.48
HTC 3.04 iPhone 2.04
LG 2.87 LG 3.23
Samsung 2.86 Samsung 2.62
Sony 3.27 Sony 3.62

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April. 2016. Vol. 6, No.5 ISSN 2307-227X
International Journal of Research In Social Sciences
© 2013-2014 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

In a perceptual map, a target function which is

called the “stress” function, is used for determining Multi-dimensional Scaling Analysis does not have
how well the objects reflect the real structure. a procedure which is related to the definition of the
Stress value is always zero or bigger than zero. The axes. As a result of this, we obtained the definition
situation which stress value is equal to zero of the dimensions by examining the qualifications
demonstrate that the data which the researcher has of the brands. Dimensions that were obtained
is fully compatible with the perception in the mind through SPSS Program is given in Table 5 for five
of the consumer. However, this case is theoretical smart phone brands.
and it is not possible for the most data. In Multi-
dimensional scaling analysis, stress values which is Table 5. Dimensions of Perceptual Map
used for validity and reliability indicator are Dimension
interpreted in the following way (Churchill and
Stimulus Stimulus 1 2
Lacobucci, 2002):
Number Name
Stress = 0.20 Poor Fit
1 HTC 1.1391 1.5146
Stress = 0.10 Mid-Fit
Stress = 0.05 Good-Fit 2 iPhone .3006 -.7705
Stress = 0.02 Very Good-Fit 3 LG .4618 -1.059
Stress = 0.00 Fully-Fit 4 Samsung .1154 -.2002
5 Sony -2.017 .5159
In our paper, after three iterations the stress value
(0.026874) is less than 0.05 and thus, the When we look at the dimensions of the perceptual
conformity of the distance between five smart map, it is presented that dimension 1 is price and
phone brands has good fit in the graphical layout. dimension 2 is screen size. For the dimension 1,
Table 3. S-Stress Value
positive part of the perceptual map shows “high
price” smartphones which are Samsung, iPhone,
Iteration S-Stress Improvement
LG and HTC. Negative part of the perceptual map
1 .26682
shows “low price” smartphone which is Sony. For
2 .23359 .03323
Dimension 2, positive part of the perceptual map
3 .23260 .00099 shows “big screen size” smartphones which are
Iteration stopped because S-stress improvement is HTC and Sony. Negative part of the perceptual map
less than .001000 shows “small screen size” smartphones which are
Stress = 0,026874 RSQ = 0,64934 Samsung, iPhone and LG.
Similarity matrix is a matrix that is symmetrical
and does not have diagonal elements. In this paper,
Semi-metric Multi-dimensional Scaling Analysis is
used because the similarity matrix was generated by
taking the average of similarity data which was
obtained from the respondents. In Table 4,
similarity matrix of five smartphone brands is
given.

The similarity matrix that we obtain was submitted

to SPSS 18.0 computer software package for the
semi-metric Multi-dimensional Scaling Analysis
and monotone regression of Euclidean distances
was generally established on the distances.
Therefore, we used monotone regression in this
paper.

Table 4. Similarity Matrix of Five Smartphone Brands

HTC iPhone LG Samsung Sony
HTC .0
iPhone 2.443 .0
LG 2.565 2.089 .0
Samsung 1.866 .000 .490 .0
Sony 3.223 2.641 2.830 2.131 .0
43
 April. 2016. Vol. 6, No.5 ISSN 2307-227X
International Journal of Research In Social Sciences
© 2013-2014 IJRSS & K.A.J. All rights reserved
www.ijsk.org/ijrss

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