Conjoint Analysis for Social Media Marketing Experimentation: Choice, Utility Estimates and Preference Ranking

To analyze the importance of social media in consumer purchase situations, we conducted conjoint analysis on consumer decision‐making in collaboration with a fashion retailer that uses Facebook as part of their promotional and commerce system. The study involved the comparisons of consumer preference for different marketing attributes by placing them on a comparable pricing scale, or pricing out non‐monetary stimuli (e.g., ordering type, shipping, size, pictures, donation to charity, and guarantee). The research framework adopted was the Behavioral Perspective Model of consumer choice. The results of the conjoint study (Pearson's R=0.998, p>0.05) showed an inverse relation between price and utility, with higher prices corresponding to lower utility. This inverse relationship for utility also holds true for other attributes, such as shipping cost. In line with behavior analytical focus on individualization and increasing emphasis on personalized marketing, we show partial utility scores from different consumers based on altered interventions for decision‐making with scenario testing and a demand curve. We discuss the implications of conjoint analysis as an experimental survey technique for decision‐making in managerial economics and its role as an efficient pre‐testing for more direct measures on behavior in online experimental analysis of behavior. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.