- a consumer rating stable ideal intensities (hence associated
with a small ellipse) has a strong weight on each point of the
small surface it covers;
- a consumer rating large ideal intensities (hence associated with
a large ellipse) has a small weight on each point of the wide surface it covers.
The map thus obtained is noted weighted Ideal Map or wIdMap.
In this case, the contour lines do not correspond to the raw proportion of consumers, but to a corrected proportion according to
the different consumers’ weights.
If one assumes that large confidence ellipses correspond to consumers with wide ideal area, the use of the IdMap is recommended.
However, if one assumes that wide ellipses correspond to instability of the ideal ratings, the wIdMap is preferred.
2.3.1.7. Definition of the ideal product. For the PrefMapD, the coordinates corresponding to the maximum proportion of consumers
overlapping can be extracted. By using the inverse formula from
the PCA – which aims at estimating the sensory profile of a product
based on the coordinates on the map – a potential profile of the
ideal product can be estimated based on these coordinates.
This procedure can also be applied to the IdMap technique. As
the individual ideal profiles are known, one could also use as ideal
productthe averaged ideal profile calculated directly from the consumers sharing an ideal product in this area of the map