Choice-Based Conjoint (CBC)

What is a choice based conjoint question ?

Choice-Based Conjoint (CBC) analysis is a market research technique used to understand how consumers make decisions about products or services. It involves breaking down a product or service into its individual attributes (such as price, features, brand, etc.) and then asking potential consumers to make a series of choices or trade-offs among a set of products or services that have been constructed by varying these attributes. Through these choices, researchers can infer the relative importance of different attributes to the consumers.

Here's how CBC typically works:

1. Designing the Study: The first step is to identify the key attributes of the product or service that might influence consumer decisions and the levels or variations of each attribute. For example, for a smartphone, attributes might include brand, price, battery life, camera quality, and screen size.

2. Creating Choice Sets: Based on the attributes and their levels, a series of hypothetical products (or services) are created. These are combined in different ways to form "choice sets". Each choice set contains a few options that participants can choose from, and each option is a combination of attribute levels.

3. Surveying Participants: Consumers participating in the study are presented with a series of these choice sets and are asked to choose their preferred option from each set. The choices made by the participants reveal their preferences and the trade-offs they are willing to make between different attributes.

4. Analyzing Data: The data from these choices are then analyzed using statistical models to understand the relative importance of each attribute to the consumer's decision-making process. This can also reveal how changes in the levels of an attribute might affect the consumer's choice.

5. Insights and Applications: The insights gained from CBC analysis can be incredibly valuable for companies. They can use this information to design or improve products, set prices, and develop marketing strategies that more closely align with consumer preferences.

CBC is favored for its realistic simulation of market decisions, as it forces consumers to make trade-offs similar to real purchasing situations. This helps companies better understand consumer preferences and predict how changes in their products or services could impact consumer behavior.