Converting market research data to a 9 point scale

What to do if your positioning (image) data is not in a 9 point scale?

If you have downloaded and used the free Excel template available on website to make a perceptual map, you will see that the data needs to be input using a 1 to 9 scale.

However, there will be times when the market research questionnaire designed to capture the consumer’s perception of brands and products is NOT in a 9 point scale. For instance, a common approach to identifying positioning is to use a 5 point scale of strongly agree to strong disagree. In this situation it will be necessary to modify the data collected from a 5 point scale to a 9 point scale to effectively use the free perceptual map template.

Unfortunately it is not as simple as doubling the scores, as the smallest score (1/5) will be pushed to 2/9, when you really want it to stay at 1/9 in the new scaling scheme.

There are two ways to convert your market research data into a 9 point scale.

1. You can download my scale-converter (which is a simple spreadsheet and recommended if you have lots of market research data to convert) or
2. You can use the following formula (suitable for use to recalculate a few numbers only).

Formula to convert data to a 9 point scale:

((Actual Data Score – Minimum score) X 8/(Maximum Data Score – Minimum Score)) + 1

Example of converting data to a 9 point scale:

Say your data is in a 1 to 5 scale and you want to convert a score of 4 (that is, 4/5) to a score out of 9. Then the data conversion formula would be:

((4 – 1) X 8/(5 -1)) + 1 =

(3 X 8)/4 + 1 = 24/4 + 1 = 6 +1 = 7

Therefore 4 in a 5 point scale is the same as 7 in a 9 point scale.