Mailbag (Q&A upto Session 6)

Hi all,

Shall use this post to putup good Q&As that I received over email. Shall update as more Q&As come in (later ones to the top of the post). So do pls watch this space.

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I received this Q from Satish:

Dear Professor, I had a couple of questions regarding the constructs and was wondering whether you could help me with them… - When discussing the Pepsi’s challenge reading (session 2) you mentioned in the notes that ‘it is critical to clearly understanding the nature of the construct”. I was wondering what you meant by the nature of the construct? - In the same slide, you mentioned that the it is critical to ensure that the measurement tool is aligned with the nature of the construct. But there is no description on how  to make sure that the measurement tool is aligned. Could you please elaborate on this? Thanks Satish

My response was as below:

Hi Satish, I've prefaced your Qs with a ">>" below. My responses follow. >> When discussing the Pepsi’s challenge reading (session 2) you mentioned in the notes that ‘it is critical to clearly understanding the nature of the construct”. I was wondering what you meant by the nature of the construct? The context is whether Coke should go for a sip or central location test versus a 'home test' (whole can consumption experience). Pepsi's challenge frames the debate in terms of Pepsi's strengths and Coke falls for the gambit. IMO, what should have mattered more to Coke is what is it that connects people to COke, what is it that people find 'satisfying' in their entire soft drink consumption experience etc - as that ultimately had a larger sales impact that the sip/CLT test. So the "nature" of the construct alludes to the latent meaning of "consumption experience" or "consumption satisfaction". Coke reads the nature of teh construct they are looking for wrong. The example generalizes to other contexts as well. >> In the same slide, you mentioned that the it is critical to ensure that the measurement tool is aligned with the nature of the construct. But there is no description on how  to make sure that the measurement tool is aligned. Could you please elaborate on this? Well, there are no particular rules, only an intuitive understanding of general guidelines in this case. Point is that unless the 'nature' of the constructs was properly pinned down, the measurement tool used was always going to be measuring something other than what was required. In the caselet context, what should have been measured was how *all* consumption factors (including brand names rather than merely the blind test results) combined together in a home or natural consumption environment to produce satisfaction/ loyalty/ repurchase intention responses in the average target segment customer. Well, I think the Q is important and timely. I'll putup the Q & A on the blog for further dissemination. Sudhir