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Mobile research is a rapidly growing addition to the traditional ways of

performing research. In the new world, where the attention span of consumers

is getting shorter and shorter, mobile conjoint provides the opportunity to

explore fields previously unknown to choice modeling. This creates unique

research opportunities, but it also comes with limitations. During this workshop,

we will take you through a couple of those opportunities and show you how a

‘3-by-3 mCBC’ approach enables us to receive as valid results on mobile as

with a traditional conjoint survey.

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At SKIM, we are choice modelers - always curious about understanding

consumer decision making. We take a look at consumer decision making in

three different contexts:

• Pricing and Portfolio;

• Communication; and

• Innovation.

Since we use conjoint as methodology in many of our projects, we often get

asked by clients: Can we also execute this conjoint survey on mobile devices?

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Mobile is an established research method by now and it is here to stay. There

has been so much discussion about mobile research in the past that tips and

tricks on how to use it can now even be printed in a book: for example, the

Handbook of Mobile Market Research.

In this book, you can find a checklist on technical details to keep in mind when

doing market research on mobile devices:

• Adjust the length of your survey

• Use ‘responsive design’ to optimize your survey for various devices

• Fit questions onto small screens (using less text, fewer answer options)

• Consider the usability of the device: Zooming, panning, and swiping

• Keep in mind the available bandwidth of a mobile user on the go

At SKIM, we have spent much of our time working on the technical details of

how to fit a conjoint survey, as we know it, onto mobile devices.

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Now that we have clarified all technical issues up until the point that we can

print recommendations in a book, it is about time to take a look at what else

can be done with ‘Mobile‘ in the future:

• Is there a paradigm shift in research now that ‘mobile’ is happening?

• What can we do with mobile research beyond what we do now?

For us at SKIM, ‘mobile research’ is about more than bringing Desktop surveys

onto mobile devices. Mobile research is a chance to rethink the way we

execute studies and discover entirely new research avenues.

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The really exciting new thing about ‘Mobile’ is the addition of context as a

variable:

• It is no longer only about WHO you survey target groups, demographics,

etc. …

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• …instead you can move on to think about WHERE and WHEN you want to

survey consumers shopping occasions, context, reality virtue

Mobile research comes along with a special reality virtue: with the addition of

context, occasions, and locations, mobile offers opportunities to bring our

research onto a whole new level of realism. That is exactly the point where it

gets interesting for us as conjoint users: with conjoint we always want to do an

experiment (what would happen to the market if product X were available?).

Now, with mobile, we can make experiments even more realistic; getting to

even better insights.

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We will present you with 3 examples of new opportunities to discover with

conjoint research on mobile devices.

Some of these ideas are today’s current reality; others look less like conjoint

experiments as we know them today. These ideas offer a sneak peek into what

conjoint research on mobile devices can look like tomorrow or further into the

future.

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Opportunity #1: 3x3 mobile CBC – close to home

Our first idea is close to home: We started with the question of how to bring

conjoint exercises - as we know them from desktops - onto mobile devices.

We realized quickly that this is not trivial: Try to fit this this conjoint task onto

the display of a smartphone…

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The motto for mobile research clearly is: ‘Doing More With Less’. We realized

quickly that we would need to develop solutions with fewer conjoint tasks,

fewer concepts on small mobile screens, and shorter surveys overall to get to

even better insights.

This made us start with the end in mind. We forced ourselves to think through

what mobile research is really all about and how we imagine the ideal mobile

conjoint exercise: no more than 3 taps on a smartphone.

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Ideally, a mobile conjoint exercise would take no more than:

• 3 tasks,

• 3 options per task, and

• no more than 60 seconds of a respondent’s time.

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Try our example of a mobile choice-based conjoint survey on your mobile

phone or tablet!

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This is what a mobile conjoint task looks like.

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As researchers - we asked, of course: How valid is it to run conjoint surveys

from a mobile phone?

We ran several validation studies comparing the results from desktops and

mobile phones. This taught us a whole lot about the necessary conditions for

running choice-based conjoint studies on mobile devices:

• Sample: A larger sample allows for asking fewer questions while still

arriving at robust model estimates. You can use the rule of thumb of having

twice the sample you would use in a desktop study when running your

survey on mobile.

• Statistical design: Reduce the complexity of your model. 3*3 mCBC works

best with perfectly balanced designs – don’t waste conjoint tasks on

exclusions, prohibitions, or alternative specific attributes.

• Layout: Make use of the space you have - max. 5 attributes, concise level

descriptions, work with icons and brand logos where possible.

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Where could you apply 3*3 mCBC?

Think about context and the reality virtue:

• Conjoint surveys as we know them, but now on the go;

• Conjoint surveys at the shelf (“You are currently in the supermarket in the

candy aisle. Which candy would you choose, if there were this new variant

of chocolate on the shelf as well?”);

• Exit-surveys on (non-)purchases in the store.

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Opportunity #2: Conjoint in real-life online shopping App

The 3*3 mCBC seen previously still looks a lot like a standard conjoint – just on

a smaller screen. This does not need to be the end of the road, though: What

else can we imagine doing with mobile and conjoint that will be driving

business insights in the future?

One application that suggests itself: online shopping - continuously growing,

running on ever more mobile devices. Imagine you are sitting on your couch at

home, with your tablet at hand, browsing Amazon’s pages…

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Use the URL or QR-code to browse our online shopping app from your mobile

or tablet!

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What you will see, may not look like a conjoint task anymore, but – trust us – it

is one:

• Try adding a product to your shopping cart and click on ‘Next’;

• Prices, promotions, shipping costs will change.

• Also: the product order and the products placed on the first page (of

several) will change.

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New attributes that we can test:

• Product ratings and reviews,

• Prices and promotions,

• Product descriptions and visuals,

• Also: Shipping options and costs.

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Now what kind of business questions can we tackle with this online

shopping app and conjoint?

Think back to the addition of context and realism:

• Optimizations of product and price in the context of online shopping;

• Optimization of ‘In App’-Purchases;

• Optimize in the context of various sales channels and purchase occasions

(different devices – desktop, tablet, mobile phone – all have different

purchase occasions).

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Opportunity #3: Besides product and price, let’s re-think what else we

can optimize with Conjoint

In examples 1 and 2, we take on typical conjoint research questions:

• What to do with the price of product X?

• What will happen if product Y enters the market?

We can also use conjoint as a method for other types of research questions.

Imagine again your home, your couch, your tablet in your lap, roaming the

Internet looking for a new laptop to buy: What are you looking for when

researching laptops online? Which webshop is giving you the best variety and

the best information? Which webshop do you prefer to compare laptops?

Which one offers the best checkout process?

From conjoint in a mobile shopping environment, it is a small step to the

question: How do consumers make purchase decisions in a mobile shopping

environment?

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We apply the concept of conjoint (attributes and levels) to a new research area:

the virtual shopping environment of a webstore.

Attributes to vary can be:

• Filter options,

• Ranking options,

• Search options,

• Product portfolio.

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And more: we can explore the entire search process respondents go through

and compare possible product options in a conjoint exercise at the same time.

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Take a look at our prototype of a webstore optimization using conjoint

(optimized for tablets – it’s a prototype)!

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Now what can we do with this webshop ?

Think again about adding context and the reality virtue:

• Optimize webstores and online shopping channels using conjoint;

• Also: Use it like ACBC to explore the decision making of online shoppers;

• Segment online shoppers and determine specific target-group requirements

for webstores.

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The key takeaways about mobile research and conjoint on mobile devices:

1. Learn to use context as a variable,

2. Start appreciating the reality virtue of mobile,

3. Think beyond what we know are conjoint applications today.

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You have questions or new ideas for applications of mobile conjoint?

Contact us or follow us online!

We look forward to hearing from you!