Perceptual maps of photographs of carbonated beverages created by traditional and free-choice pro®ling

Perceptual maps of how consumers view a set of products are often constructed by pro®ling methods. One of the most common pro®ling techniques used is attribute rating analysis (ARA) in which consumers evaluate products on a prespeci®ed set of attributes. Free-choice pro®ling (FCP) allows consumers to describe and evaluate products in their own terminology. The objective of this study was to compare the perceptual maps created from ARA and FCP. Forty-two persons evaluated photographs of twelve carbonated beverage brands using 13 speci®ed attributes (ARA). Forty-four di€erent persons, using the same product set, made evaluations based on their own criteria (FCP). The resulting perceptual maps were similar and dimensions from the two maps were signi®cantly correlated. Large group variance in the Procrustes analysis further con®rmed similarity of the perceptual maps. However, for these data the consumer FCP elicited more explicit attributes to describe the soda brands than the ARA. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.