Marketing Strategy and the Structure of Aggregate, Segment-Specific, and Differential Preferences

Some aspects of preference structure can be represented by a space in which the proximity of objects indicates the degree to which people who like or dislike one tend also to like or dislike the other. Further insights emerge from the directions of aggregate, segment-specific, and differential preference vectors in such an affective space. These vectors represent preference patterns of interest to firms practicing strategies of undifferentiated marketing, differentiated or concentrated marketing, and product oriented selling, respectively. Accordingly, the basic techniques for this type of scaling are illustrated in a study that addresses the implications of preference structure for decisions in radio programming.