Using the AHP in marketing decision‐making

Many marketing planning and evaluation tasks involve making multicriterion decisions, sometimes involving groups. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP), by building a customized hierarchy to represent each problem, leads to the likely identification of all key components affecting decision‐making, which contrasts with “seat of the pants” decisions. The most important objectives and alternatives at each hierarchical level are determined through trading off preferences. This can also help reconcile group conflict. Data collection using AHP involves each decision maker determining their relative intensity of preferences by uniquely combining quantitative and qualitative data on to a single scale. To reduce tedium, appropriate software can significantly speed up results. Furthermore, the ability to calculate and present results at each decision level can be used to support, persuade and justify proposed outcomes to top management. This is important for marketing managers fighting for scarce resources.