Discrete Choice Modeling

It is one thing to ask potential students and their families whether they would choose “a public university” and “a private liberal arts college” in a test scenario. It is quite another to ask them to choose: “University of Wisconsin or Beloit?”

Discrete Choice Modeling poses questions about price and value as reality-based alternatives. That is, exactly how much more or less is an institution worth compared to its overlap schools? This is made more real because Hardwick-Day utilizes a web-based response mechanism and phone recruiting process that captures the joint decision making of parent and student. That is, a response given in the same way families make their final decisions.

Research can inform a pricing decision by telling colleges and universities how a particular population of people would respond to a particular understanding of price, reputation, and other colleges being considered.

But price functions in a changing, dynamic, and competitive market. Competitors make their own moves, and the group of families colleges will talk to next year and the year after will be different than the set they've just tried to recruit. Research that is truly strategic on the subject of price will explore institutional market position and image as well as audience knowledge and perception. This in turn will inform execution, implementation, and communication strategies to help manage perceptions of value.