Consumer estimations of “ideal” product attributes have been used for many years to guide product development. Massey University work has studied consumer ideals calculated as absolute, interval and ratio scores. Ideal absolute and ideal interval scores, because of context effects, have proved of limited value in long-term projects. Ideal ratio scores indicating percentage change needed to make an attribute “ideal” have proved more useful.

Both “fixed” and “floating” ideals are useful in product development; “floating” ideals in the early stages of product concept development and the later stages of product testing; “fixed” ideals in the laboratory development of the product. Multivariate analysis of data containing ideals is useful in understanding the “ideal” in terms of other products and their attributes. Ideal ratio scores are needed to give specific information to guide product development. It is recommended that both ideal ratio scores and multivariate analysis of data be used.