Project

Affective-Cognitive Product Evaluation and Prediction of Customer Decisions

Groups

Companies would like more new products to be successful in the marketplace, but current evaluation methods such as focus groups do not accurately predict customer decisions. We are developing new technology-assisted methods to try to improve the customer-evaluation process and better predict customer decisions. The new methods involve multi-modal affective measures (such as facial expression and skin conductance) together with behavioral measures, anticipatory-motivational measures, and self-report cognitive measures. These measures are combined into a novel computational model, the form of which is motivated by findings in affective neuroscience and human behavior. The model is being trained and tested with customer product evaluations and marketplace outcomes from real product launches.