Commentary

MacKay and Zinnes (MacKay, D. B., J. L. Zinnes. 1986. A probabilistic model for the multidimensional scaling of proximity and preference data. Marketing Sci.5 325–344.) refer to an exciting period in the late 1960's and early 1970's when MDS was promising new horizons in understanding consumer perceptions. To business, the intriguing aspect of MDS at that time was the orientation towards hypothesis generation. The similarity and dissimilarity judgments which consumers were asked to make produced a representation of brand, product, activity, or sensory material relationships that were not constrained by the preconceived dimensional limits of corporate analysts and managers.