Survey data collection can be used to measure many different things, and one of the most key measurements you can make is the perception of your customer base. Measuring customer perceptions is key to seeing how they value different features or determine their brand loyalty, and creating a perceptual map template is a great way to diagram these opinions visually.
In this article, we will define a perceptual mapping, talk about some of its best applications, and break down how to build one yourself.
Perceptual mapping is an invaluable yet often overlooked tool in the marketing toolkit. This technique allows you to visually map out how your target audience perceives your brand in comparison to competitors. At first glance, creating these maps may seem complex. However, the insights they provide can reap powerful benefits for your marketing strategy.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll break down exactly what perceptual mapping is, how to create one, and most importantly – the multitude of benefits it offers marketers. Let’s dive in.
What is Perceptual Mapping?
Perceptual mapping is a marketing technique used to visually display how brands and products are perceived by consumers in the marketplace. The maps allow you to see where your brand sits in relation to competitors based on metrics like price, quality, features, and benefits.
The most common types of perceptual maps place brands on a 2×2 grid The x and y axes represent spectrums like high vs low price or innovative vs traditional. Where a brand lands demonstrates how it is perceived on those spectrums
For example, a luxury fashion brand would likely land in the “high price, high quality” quadrant While a budget fast fashion brand would fall into “low price, low quality.”
The goal is to identify where there may be gaps in the market. If all brands cluster around “low price, low quality”, there may be an opportunity for a new entrant to disrupt with “high quality, medium price.”
Overall, perceptual mapping allows you to visualize the competitive landscape and your brand’s position within it. This paves the way for data-driven marketing decisions.
How is Perceptual Mapping Conducted?
The most critical component of perceptual mapping is consumer data, This allows you to plot where brands actually sit in the minds of your target audience
The specific process consists of:
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Choosing metrics to map: Start by determining the spectrums you want to map. Price and quality are common, but you can choose any product attributes relevant to your industry.
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Selecting brands to compare: Pick 3-5 of your closest competitors to plot alongside your brand. This gives context to how you are perceived.
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Survey target consumers: Ask a representative sample to rate all brands on the metrics you chose. This forms the plotting data.
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Analyze and map data: With the survey ratings in hand, you can start plotting brands on the perceptual map using statistical analysis.
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Interpret the insights: The final map will reveal gaps in the market and opportunities for repositioning. This informs your marketing strategy going forward.
The key is turning the perceptual map into action. It provides unique insights you can implement across pricing, positioning, products, and promotions.
5 Powerful Benefits of Perceptual Mapping
Now that you understand what perceptual mapping entails, let’s explore the many advantages it offers for marketers:
1. Identify Gaps in the Marketplace
The greatest benefit of perceptual mapping is revealing gaps or “white space” in the competitive landscape. When all brands cluster around a certain attribute association, it signals an opportunity.
For example, if no auto brands are perceived as both affordable and luxurious, there may be room for a new entrant to fill that gap. The map visually condenses a market’s dynamics to highlight these openings.
Finding a vacant positioning where consumer needs are unmet allows you to innovate with purpose. You can develop offerings to strategically fill that space with precision.
2. Guide Effective Brand Positioning
Perceptual maps also indicate how your brand is currently positioned in consumers’ minds. You may find it lands far from where you intend on certain attributes.
For instance, you may aim for your product to be seen as innovative and cutting-edge. But the mapping shows it is actually perceived as traditional and stagnant.
These insights allow you to course correct by fine-tuning pricing, products, promotions, and messaging to align with your desired positioning. You can reorient your marketing to sculpt perceptions that match your brand identity.
3. Benchmark Against Competitors
Viewing direct competitors on the same perceptual map offers instant benchmarking. You can assess where you stand on key attributes versus rivals to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.
If a competitor is pegged as higher quality, you can focus on boosting quality perceptions through ingredients, materials, warranties, or messaging. Or emphasize secondary attributes where you hold an advantage, like affordability or sustainability.
Continuous mapping also lets you track how brand perceptions evolve over time as marketing initiatives and competitive dynamics shift.
4. Identify New Target Audiences
Perceptual mapping can reveal market segments that may be a fit for your brand, but you haven’t actively targeted yet.
For example, suppose eco-conscious consumers emerge as a gap in the market. If your brand happens to authentically align with sustainability values, that presents a new targeting opportunity even if it wasn’t your legacy positioning.
Conversely, you may find your brand resonates strongly with a certain demographic that is worth further prioritization. Mapping exposes pockets of prospect groups you can capitalize on.
5. Inform Product Development
The insights gleaned from perceptual mapping can feed directly into new product development and innovation pipelines.
If you notice consumers craving more organic offerings, you can design products to match that demand. Or spot that lower price points are a gap that innovative budget-friendly line extensions could fill.
It visually depicts exactly what target consumers want more of so you can deliver it. This data-led approach to new product development de-risks innovation.
Start Mapping Your Brand’s Perceptions
In today’s competitive landscape, marketing without insights is like navigating without a map. Perceptual mapping provides that visual compass to guide your brand positioning and strategy.
While the tactic may seem complex at first glance, the wealth of benefits for brand clarity, target audience alignment, product development, and competitive advantage make it well worth the effort.
Curious about conducting perceptual mapping for your brand? Appinio is an agile consumer insights platform built to map brand perceptions through surveys targeted to your exact audience.
As a start, you can check out our consumer perception survey template. Or get in touch for a custom mapping workshop tailored to your business needs. It’s time to start mapping. Your brand positioning depends on it.
Why use a perceptual map?
A customer’s opinion of your business can be analyzed with the help of a perceptual map. They are essential tools for marketing people. Product managers use perceptual maps to find and talk with product managers.
With the help of it, you can figure out what and how people feel about your product. As such, it is a vital tool for marketing and product teams. Product and marketing involved people can benefit from perceptual maps in the following ways:
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Identify market gaps for new products
This show brands against two or more parameters based on customer perception. Product managers can uncover gaps between consumer wants and existing goods if they evaluate them attentively. From the customer’s perspective, the holes in the perceptual map indicate unmet market needs. This helps begin your study on how a new product might meet those demands.
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Launch effective marketing campaigns
Businesses can also use perceptual maps to look at how well a recent marketing effort or change to the marketing mix worked. In fact, a perceptual map is one of the best ways to make a business plan.
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Enhance brand identity
A perceptual map helps businesses learn what customers think about their products, which is important for figuring out how to meet their wants by adding new features. This information helps to improve the use of features, customer satisfaction, and company identity.
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Understand market segment
Lastly, perceptual maps help you learn more about the different market segments, look at how competitors position themselves over time, figure out how customers’ needs change, and track new goods introduced to the target market segment over time.
What is a perceptual map?
A perceptual map is a diagram used by businesses to map out how their customers perceive different items, products, or brands. Gathering aggregate customer data builds a viewpoint for how your principal users understand the relative positioning of different products or brands within the greater ecosystem.
While some people compare perceptual maps to positioning a map, they’re actually very different. It only measures the perceived traits of a brand or product, while positioning maps compare the actual traits.
LEARN ABOUT: Perceived Value
For example, compare the viewpoints of a young adult analyzing a car’s safety and a veteran insurance salesman doing the same. Based on commercials, young adults might perceive that Ford makes the safest car. At the same time, the insurance salesman knows through experience and data analysis that Volvo cars get in accidents and boast better passenger safety.
This example helps demonstrate the key difference between perceptual maps and positioning maps. Perceptual maps only measure the customer’s perception of reality and might not reflect the truth.
Perceptual data mapping is still very helpful to businesses, and it helps create informed decisions about how customers view the general positioning of different brands. Depending on the data collected, they can also accommodate different scopes of comparison, helping businesses compare specific attributes or advantages.
This knowledge is critical to businesses because it helps create strong marketing campaigns based on the feedback you’re receiving from your customer’s journey.
What is Perceptual Mapping? Meaning, Benefits, Limitations, Examples & How to build a Perceptual Map
FAQ
What is one advantage to using a perceptual map?
What is the primary purpose of a perceptual map?
Which of the following represents the benefits of perceptual maps?
Which of the following is the best reason for using perceptual maps?
Why is perceptual mapping important?
Perceptual mapping provides marketers with valuable insights into how their brands or products are positioned relative to competitors. By plotting competing brands/products on the same perceptual map, marketers can visually assess their competitive landscape and identify areas of strength and weakness.
How to create a perceptual map?
Selecting attributes is the first and probably the most integral step for any perceptual map. Attributes that matter to your target audience gives these maps a real meaning. The target audience and customers use these attributes to compare your products with the competitors.
Why is a perceptual region map important?
Perceptual region maps also allows managers to develop strategies that can bring more sales. They focus on what matters to the target group rather than focusing on what matters to them. A tremendous shift in mentality and a perceptual map is very much the reason.
Is a perceptual map the same as a Positioning MAP?
A perceptual map and a positioning map are not the same thing. Perceptual maps indicate how customers perceive the various products in a given category while a positioning map evaluates actual features of brands.
