I'm interested in your thoughts regarding running simulations about a single product. There are times when simulating for a single product rather than multiple products or a competitive scenario makes more sense. Perhaps a true competitor cannot be defined, or this is a new product category so there are no competitors, or maybe the category is so heavily populated that there are many competitors and the interest just lies on general product preference, etc. Is there a right or more appropriate way to do this?
One way could simply be to simulate a single product vs. "none" and get shares (in SMRT via first choice, share of preference, or RFC). Another could be via purchase likelihood in SMRT (without calibration) which, as I understand it, would then simply be a general measure of preference. Or perhaps it is better to force a competitive scenario where you include some fixed "competitor" in all simulations that perhaps is a middle-of-the-road product based on average utilities. This competition seems more natural and well-suited to conjoint simulations, since that is what's shown on screen to respondents in a CBC exercise. But at the same time the fixed product is just generic.
So if there are any schools of thought on this topic I'd love to hear them or be pointed in the right direction to find them. Thank you!