Optimal Product Attributes in Single Choice Models

Product positioning is concerned with the determination of new product attributes such that certain objectives can be met. Recently, Zufryden proposed a model for optimal product positioning with respect to sales. It relies on the single choice assumption, i.e. consumers choose that product closest to their ideal product perceptions. To improve solvability, Zufryden suggests to solve his model via an approximate procedure, called ZIPMAP. This procedure is compared with an exactly optimising algorithm for the same problem, called PROPOSAS. Comparisons are drawn with respect to the solution values of the objective functions and the CPU-time requirements. The results indicate a superiority of PROPOSAS for a vast number of problem types.