Blending Art and Science

In general, we are known for our broad range of marketing research services for the health care industry – hospitals, health insurance, medical products and devices, pharma and a wide range of other types of health care organizations. However, in the specialized area of applying a broad range of conjoint techniques to problems of product design, DSS has worked in many different industries outside of health care, bringing a wide range of conjoint methodologies and our proprietary tools to such diverse applications as health insurance, pacemaker and ICD, helicopter, cardiac ablation devices, consumer energy program, to name a few.

New Product Design

When it comes to testing and developing new product ideas, herding a focus group around a prototype just doesn’t cut it. You’ll get responses that don’t quite ring true — as a product idea without a context doesn’t really give the respondent a true environment to consider the options you’re offering.

Using advanced choice modeling techniques, DSS can help you identify what real tradeoffs your various market segments are willing to make as they make real-world purchase decisions. Our processes map the true tipping points in terms of features and profitability, guiding your new product design with an approach that combines consumer desires with marketplace realities for the optimal offering.

DSS Choice Modeling: For Decisive Results

Purchase means real world choice. You are increasingly faced with sorting out, predicting and adjusting to the types of choices buyers – current and potential -- in different market segments will make.

We’re the recognized leader in the set of advanced research techniques for choice modeling collectively known as conjoint analysis. Conjoint analysis involves analyzing the trade-offs that buyers make between price and other product features. DSS began its pioneering work in this area almost 25 years ago, and we continue to add to our unparalleled base of proprietary tools and product development know-how with every study we do.

Conjoint studies at DSS are a combination of high tech and high touch. Naturally, we’re experts at designing the research process to highlight the most relevant product features for your target — but we really deliver the goods in our professional analysis of your results. We’ve built an extensive team of researchers in this specialized area, so our analysis and reporting provide detailed roadmaps for your product development and marketing strategy.

You’re buying our insights, and we deliver them in many ways, including at-a-glance graphical reports which highlight key findings and online tools to extend the usefulness of the data well into the future. DSS product development services provide:

• Measures of the importance of brand, price and all other product features
• Estimated value that each respondent places on the various product features, which can be used to measure price sensitivity, brand equity and product demand
• Segmentation of consumers and employers on the basis of the value they place on brand, price and other product features
• Analysis of profitability and growth potential of each of your segments
• Profiling of market segments based on attitudes, demographics, current behavior and more
• Access to Dominator 2020^®, our Internet-based simulation tool that lets you test all the new product ideas and competitive scenarios you’d like to explore, at your own pace. Dominator 2020^® lets you analyze feature preferences and potential share estimates for the entire market, or by numerous subgroups.

Read more detail about how we use conjoint techniques in our white paper entitled A Review of Conjoint Analysis. We’ve also published scholarly articles on the value of these techniques for health plans, which you may download for free. They are “Conjoint on the Web” and “Modeling Consumer Health Plan Choice and Behavior to Improve Customer Value and Health Plan Market Share.”

Contact us today to learn more about our choice modeling services or for a demonstration of Dominator 2020^®.

Dominator 2020^® is a registered trademark of DSS Research.

Overview of the Process