Abstract
After the bursting of the bubble economy in Japan, consumption patterns shifted from a demand
for “multifunctional products” to one for “individual fitting products”. To deal with this change, various marketing studies have been carried out to extract information that can be used for developing “hot-selling” products. The problem is that it is diffcult to extract useful information about customers’ “potential needs”.
We have developed a method for allowing the data collected using a customer satisfaction questionnaire to be analyzed so that potential customer needs are effciently extracted from the data.Quality elements (product functions) are mapped in three dimensions：（1） degree of satisfaction,（2） degree of expectation,and （3） degree of significance. Degree of satisfaction is the customers’ evaluation of each quality element when they use the product. Degree of expectation is the customers’ subjective priority for each element when they purchase the product. Degree of
significance is the significance, as perceived by the customers, of each element to the product as a whole when they use the product. This mapping enables “potential needs” to be distinguished from “surface needs” and customer needs to be categorized as “real needs” or “false needs”. Strategies for product development and sales promotion can be developed based on where each quality element is mapped.
