THE CONSTANT SUM PARADIGM

Tradeoffs: You can't have it all!


10-01-96

Consumers/Customers would like to have everything. When we ask them what's IMPORTANT to them (i.e. how important various CRITERIA are in their decision process), we don't let them have it all. We make the selection of CRITERIA IMPORTANCE WEIGHTS a SUM CONSTRAINED PROCESS. If you want a LOT of something, it will have to be at the expense of SOMETHING ELSE. We use a similar method for measuring BRAND/PRODUCT/OBJECT preferences.

What this also implies is that there's no such thing as a 'Free Lunch'. If you really want something, you'll probably have to give up something else.

More on this later.



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