Increasingly, stated preference choice projects involve Menu-Based Choice scenarios (MBC) where respondents can select one to multiple options from a menu. This is not surprising, given the fact that buyers commonly are allowed to customize products and services (mass customization).

Examples include:

• Choosing options to put on an automobile
• Selections from a restaurant menu
• Banking options
• Configuring an insurance policy
• Purchasing bundled vs. a la carte services including mobile phones, internet, and cable.

The software takes a data processing and analysis process that can take experienced analysts from one to two weeks to do and compresses the timeline to 1 to 2 days.

MBC requires more expertise to use properly than our other conjoint analysis tools. The user should have solid background in CBC and multivariate statistical modeling, especially in terms of building models (regression, MNL) and the theory behind coding independent variables. While the software manages most details involving the data processing, independent variable coding, model estimation and simulations, the user must understand and direct the process intelligently.

Chris Moore, GfK NOP UK: Sawtooth Software's new Menu Based Choice (MBC) software has unlocked a field of conjoint that was only previously available to elite conjoint users. What would have taken the analyst days (probably weeks in some cases) to set up the analysis and simulations can now be accomplished in a matter of hours and the flexibility that the software offers regarding specifying different cross-effect models means that MBC can now become a mainstream conjoint technique.

There are three ways to license MBC software:

1. One-time fee of $10,000 for a single user/seat. Upgrade fees for new versions will cost about 40% of the original purchase price of the software.
2. Annual fee of $6,000 for a single user/seat. Upgrades are included at no additional cost.
3. Premium Corporate Annual License of $19,900 ($4,000 more than the standard corporate annual license). Covers up to 10 users/seats for MBC, plus 10 seats for all other Sawtooth Software tools.

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