MaxDiff Analysis
Quantify what matters most — without bias or guesswork.
MaxDiff (Maximum Difference Scaling) analysis helps teams understand the relative importance of features, messages, or benefits by forcing clear tradeoffs. Unlike rating scales where everything can seem important, MaxDiff reveals true priorities — showing what drives decisions and what doesn’t.
When to conduct
MaxDiff Analysis
Conduct a MaxDiff analysis when you need to prioritize features, messaging, or value propositions and make confident decisions about what to lead with — especially when internal opinions differ or everything feels equally important.
What is
MaxDiff Analysis
MaxDiff analysis is a survey-based research technique that asks respondents to repeatedly choose the most and least important items from a set. This approach produces a statistically robust ranking of priorities, eliminating common biases found in traditional rating scales.
3–5×
more discriminatory than standard rating scales when identifying true preferences and priorities. That’s why MaxDiff is widely used when decisions require clarity — not inflated scores or false ties.
Sample Research
Questions We Answer
Question 1:
Which features or benefits actually drive decisions?
MaxDiff reveals what rises to the top when buyers are forced to make tradeoffs — separating must-haves from nice-to-haves and identifying what truly influences choice.
42%
of total preference weight concentrates on just the top three features — indicating clear prioritization opportunities.
18%
of features consistently rank as low-impact, despite internal assumptions about their importance.
Question 2:
What should we lead with in messaging and positioning?
By testing value propositions head-to-head, MaxDiff shows which messages resonate most and which can be deprioritized or removed entirely.
39%
higher preference score for outcome-focused messaging compared to feature-led language.
27%
drop in stated relevance for secondary messages once buyers are forced to choose tradeoffs.
Why trust Emporia with your
MaxDiff Analysis
Make prioritization decisions with statistical confidence.
MaxDiff studies require careful design and interpretation to produce reliable results. Emporia’s approach ensures attribute lists are well-structured, tradeoffs are meaningful, and outputs are translated into clear strategic guidance. By combining verified B2B respondents with expert methodology, we help teams move beyond subjective debate and align around evidence-based priorities.
Speed / Agility
Move from question to insight without sacrificing rigor. Emporia’s streamlined workflows and responsive research support allow teams to launch, field, and analyze studies quickly — so insights arrive while decisions are still being made, not after the moment has passed.
Verified B2B Respondents
Reach the right decision-makers with confidence. Every respondent is verified using professional attributes, ensuring your insights reflect real buyers, real roles, and real purchasing influence — not guesswork or self-reported profiles.
Expert Methodology
Get more than data — get direction. Our team partners closely on study design, framing, and interpretation, helping translate research outputs into clear strategic implications across pricing, positioning, and go-to-market execution.
Emporia provides valuable access to niche, high-level respondents that are otherwise difficult to reach. They enable us to move beyond traditional targeting, connecting us with professionals with specialized knowledge and qualifications. We have confidence their experts are credible and aligned with our research needs.
We were thrilled with Emporia’s excellent data quality, professionalism, responsiveness, and speed in delivering a very high-end, niche audience of investment fund managers and venture capital professionals.
Emporia gives us another perspective. Our product team does a really great job working with our existing customers: understanding and solving for their needs. Emporia allows me to find new audiences and conduct that initial research that helps set the stage for potential new customers, products and markets.
We are often trying to recruit hard to reach audiences and so it's imperative for us to have high quality data and verified respondents. Emporia go above and beyond to help us and our agency partners not only reach the right audiences but enhance our customer understanding which is a great experience.
