By Paul N. Bloom, Steve Hoeffler, Kevin Lane Keller and Carlos E. Basurto Meza
How should companies determine the best way to allocate marketing dollars between conventional promotional programs and affinity marketing programs? The former simply stress the benefits of buying a specific brand, while the latter prominently and publicly identify a company’s association with a particular sport, entertainment event, nonprofit organization or social cause. Experiments we have conducted suggest that the research method known as conjoint analysis could be a valuable market research tool to help companies predict which of several alternative affinity marketing affiliations would provide the best return on investment. Furthermore, based on both theory and our initial findings from a set of studies using conjoint analysis, many companies will obtain better returns through creating an affinity with a social cause than through affiliating with other, more clearly commercial ventures.
MIT Sloan Management Review 47(2): 49-55, 2006