Max Diff Test

Customer preferences are the crucial goal for much market research. However, when using the common ranking/rating scale questions, too often you might find yourself facing data that is either ordinally biased or non-distinctive enough to make an informed decision. SPRINT offers the MaxDiff test to optimize this situation. Additionally, it is also possible to utilize MaxDiff as a module in your research, as we set out to accommodate your needs for customer preferences, big or small.

MaxDiff, or Maximum Difference Scaling, is a survey method for demonstrating preferences among multiple items. It helps prioritize choices by identifying the most and least preferred options. By showing the recurring question with a slightly different answer combination each time, MaxDiff, as its name, maximizes the differences of preference by thoroughly comparing all the answer options with the straightforward ‘most-least’ scale.

With a MaxDiff test (or module), you can have a direct and clear insight into what your customers prefer or value the most in the given context. It could be colors or appearance features of your next packaging, claims that emphasize the different functional attributes of your new product, or the most appropriate and/or appealing names of your service.

At SPRINT, we further provide:

1. On-the-Fly Analysis: this analysis feature makes identifying the preferences of respondents in real time possible. With this information, precise follow-up questions based on the preferences can be asked, which often help to unveil the equally important insights of ‘why’ for you.
2. Item Segmentation: this feature dynamically categorizes items that are consistently preferred or rejected by respondents across questions. It showcases correlations among preferences (e.g., between color and design; or among price, feature, and subscription models) and provides a comprehensive view for your product/service.