Introduction

Why might you need knowledge of the semantic differential technique?

• We can learn our place relative to competitors in the subconscious of consumers. It may seem to us that customers treat our product badly, but what happens if we find out that they treat competitors even worse on the criteria that are most important to us?
• We can find out how successful our advertising is relative to competitors' products in the same category (Call of Duty or Battlefield?)
• Let's determine what needs to be worked on when positioning. Is the image of the company or product perceived as “cheap”? Apparently, when conducting a new advertising campaign, we will either have to remain in this corner of the consumer's consciousness (and come to terms with this status), or urgently change the vector of development. Xiaomi are positioned as cheaper alternatives to flagships with the same hardware (conditionally). They have a well-defined position that distinguishes them from the background of eminent competitors who position themselves as expensive - Apple, Samsung, etc. One of the main problems in this case will be that the association (namely, the whole method is built on them) with the word “cheap” can also attract the association “bad” or “poor quality”.

  By the way, this also works when comparing any other objects in the selected category - you can compare processors, phones, and news portals! In fact, the imagination for applying this method is not limited.

How do I determine which criteria I should use to compare our products?
In principle, this question can be answered in different ways - you can try to take an expert interview, a semi-structured interview, or choose the focus group method. Some of the categories you have received may come across to you on the Internet - this should not confuse you. Remember that the main thing in your research is not the uniqueness of the data obtained, but their objectivity and reliability.

It should also be noted that more than once in various textbooks I have come across similar phrases: “Bad, as a rule, is associated with cold, dark, low; good - with warm, light, high. Can you imagine if Sprite, after another "Keep Your Thirst" commercial, saw that their drink was still associated with warm?

That is why it is worth paying attention to what exactly we are working with - if for an application whose main goal is relaxation, we get the word “calm” in the associative series, then it is not at all necessary that we want to get the same characteristic for the shooter. To some extent, the assessment is the most subjective part of this method, but do not forget that it is initially focused on working with an associative array, which can vary from consumer to consumer (which is why another important factor will be the study of your target audience, which is often carried out using the method of questionnaire survey or structured interview).

Methodology

Even before the start of the stage, we must decide which advertising messages (we will analyze everything in this example) we want to test. In our case, they will be advertisements for the following phones:

For ease of mastering the method, we take two respondents.

The first stage is the definition of categories for study.

Suppose that using the focus group method, we were able to determine the following 9 categories (the figure is not taken from the ceiling - initially just so many criteria divided into 3 equal groups - assessment factors (E), strength factor (P) and activity factor (A) , proposed to determine the author):

1. Exciting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Calming
2. Banal 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Unique
3. Natural 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Artificial
4. Cheap 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Expensive
5. Creative 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Banal
6. Repulsive 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Attractive
7. Bright 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dim
8. Dirty 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Clean
9. Dominant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Secondary

The second stage is the development of the questionnaire.

A methodologically correct questionnaire for two respondents for two advertisements would look like this:

As you can see, the smallest and largest values ​​change depending on the line. According to the creator of this method, Charles Osgood, this method helps to check the respondent's attentiveness, as well as the degree of his involvement in the process (I noticed and clarified - super!). However, some researchers (especially unscrupulous ones) may not alternate the scales, so as not to invert them later. Thus, they miss the fourth item on our list.

The third stage is the collection of data, entering them into our scale.

From this moment on, you can either start entering data into Excel (as I did for greater convenience), or continue to do everything manually - depending on how many people you decide to interview (As for me, Excel is more convenient, but with a small number respondents will be faster to count manually).

The fourth stage is the restoration of scales.

If you decide to follow the "correct" method, then you will now find that you should bring the scales to a single value. In this case, I decided that the maximum value would be “7”, and the minimum would be “1”. Therefore, the even columns remain untouched. We “restore” the rest of the values ​​(reflect the values ​​— 1<=>7, 2<=>6, 3<=>5, 4=4).
Now our data will be presented in the following form:

The fifth stage is the calculation of average and general indicators.

The most popular indicators are the “winner” on each scale (“best”) and the “loser” on each scale (“worst”).
We obtain by standard summation and division by the number of respondents of all marks for each brand for the selected characteristic and their subsequent comparison.
Average indicators for each advertisement in the restored form:

1. Exciting and pacifying - the same indicators (5).
2. Banal and unique are the same indicators (5).
3. The most natural is advertising 1.
4. The most expensive is advertising 2.
5. The most creative is advertising 1.
6. The most attractive is advertising 2.
7. The brightest is advertising 2.
8. The cleanest is advertising 1.
9. The most dominant is advertising 2.

Now let's move on to generalized indicators. In this case, we will have to sum each brand across all of its scores from all respondents across all characteristics (our averages will come in handy here). So we will determine the "absolute leader" (there may be 2, or even 3).

Total points - Advertisement 1 (39,5 points). Advertising 2 (41 points).
Winner - Advertisement 2.
The main thing is that you clearly realize that the winner without a big margin is easy prey.

The sixth stage is the construction of perception maps.

Graphs and tables have become one of the most acceptable and pleasing spectacles for the eyes since the introduction of Ankherson and Krom into science. When reporting, they look much more clearly, in connection with which Charles borrowed from more exact sciences and psychology in addition to the perception map. They help you visualize exactly where your brand/advertisement/product is located. They are built by assigning two values ​​to both axes - for example, the X-axis will become the designation for the “dirty-clean” criterion, and the Y-axis will be “dim-bright”.

Building a map:

Now we can clearly see exactly how two products representing well-known companies stand in the minds of consumers.

The main advantage of perception maps is their convenience. Using them, it is quite easy to analyze consumer preferences and images of various brands. And this, in turn, is of great importance for creating effective advertising messages. a scale used to evaluate a product on some basis.

Results

As you can see, the method in abbreviated form is not difficult to understand; it can be used not only by specialists in the field of social and marketing research methodology, but also by ordinary users.

Source: habr.com