Edit Attributes

The Edit Attributes node provides a simple way to change the value of individual Product Attributes within the Input Product Array. For example, the Edit Attributes node could be used to discount Price, trim Cost, increase Capacity, switch Location, or toggle the Inclusion of one or more Products.

Product Attributes are any Numeric, String, or Boolean value associated with a Product. Editing Attributes can help to analyze a variety of potential market strategies. For example, would it be more profitable to increase Price or decrease Cost? Should vendors invest in expanding their production Capacity? Would Customers respond favorably to smaller Products containing less Volume? How would the Market respond if a Product were to be Out-of-Stock?

Several Edit Attributes nodes can be cascaded one after the other to fine-tune the edited Product Attributes. This allows several concurrent changes to be analyzed together, such as a simultaneous change in both Price and Cost.

See Also: The 'Edit Attributes' node is a simplified version of the 'Scale Products' node. It can be used when the set of Products to be edited is well defined and does not have a complex relationship to a Focus Product. And unlike the Scale Products node, this Edit Attributes node can also be used to change the String and Boolean Attributes of Products. The Scale Products node is better suited to analyzing complex relationships between Products, such as the discounting of Products sold by only Top Competitive Rivals.

More Help: Examples and sample workflows can be found at the Scientific Strategy website: www.scientificstrategy.com .

Input ports

1. Type: Table
   Input Product Array
   Input Product Array : The set of Products, along with their Attributes, that define the Market. Each row corresponds to a Product that competes for customers in the Market. Each column correponds to an Attribute. The 'Input Product Array' should have the following columns:

   1. Product (string - required): The name of the Product corresponding to a column of the same name in the 'Input WTP Matrix' or the 'No Sale' Product.
   2. Description (string): The description of the Product or the full name of the Product if the Product field contains an identification number.
   3. Brand (string): The Brand of the Product. This Attribute can be modified by selecting the 'String' tab in the Configuration Dialog.
   4. Store (string): The Store which sells the Product. Editing the Store Attribute changes the dynamics between competitors wishing to maximize total Store profitability.
   5. Location (string): The name of the Product Location. The Location can be a name, or it can be used flexibly to indicate the speed of delivery as 'Overnight Delivery', 'Second Day Delivery', 'Third Day Delivery', etc.
   6. Family (string): The name of the Product Family. Generally used to link together related Products. Several Product SKUs can all be part of the same Family.
   7. Category (string): The name of the Product Category. Several Product Families may be part of the same Category.
   8. Platform (string): The name of the Product Platform. The Platform is a general purpose label that can be used in any way. It can, for example, indicate whether the Product is sold both 'Online' as well as 'Offline'.
   9. Price (double): The 'Static Price' of each Product in the Market. This is the most obvious example of a Numeric Product Attribute that would be changed by this 'Edit Attributes' node via the 'Numeric' tab in the Configuration Dialog. This 'Static Price' can be adjusted by the personalized 'Dynamic Price' found in the 'Input WTP Matrix'. Personalized Price = Static Price x PAV + PAF. For example, some Customers may be entitled to the percentage Discount found in the 'Price Adjustment Variable' (PAV) column, or some Customers may need to pay the personalized delivery charges found in the 'Price Adjustment Fixed' (PAF) column. The Static Price of the 'No Sale' Product, if included, should be zero.
   10. Cost (double): The 'Static Cost' of each Product required to calculate the 'Profit' in the 'Output Product Array', as well as the 'Marginal Profit' and 'Value Created' in the 'Output Product Ranking List'. The 'Static Cost' is the per-unit Cost for the Product that doesn't change regardless of how many Products are sold, and should be used by default. It can be contrasted with 'Dynamic Costs' which vary according to the Customers who Purchase the Product. This 'Static Cost' of the Product found in the 'Input Product Array' is added to the optional 'Dynamic Costs' found in the 'Input WTP Matrix'.
   11. Volume (double): The 'Static Volume' of the Product relative to the Volume of other Products in the Market. For example, if a Product were a twin-pack then its Volume would be '2' while the Volume of the original Product would be '1' (default). Other scales could also be used, so that one Product might be 250 (ml) while another 500 (ml). But care with the scale should be taken as the Units are disregarded and the default of '1' will always be used if a Volume is missing. This 'Static Volume' field in the 'Input Product Array' is only important if an accompanying 'Dynamic Volume' field (or _VOL field) is found in the 'Input WTP Matrix'. Otherwise this field is ignored as Virtual Customers do not distinguish Products by the different Volume they require.
   12. Capacity (integer): The Capacity Constraint for the Product. A Product's Capacity may be limited by manufacturing constraints or by inventory levels. If the Capacity level is provided then the Quantity sold for the Product cannot exceed the Capacity limitation. If Capacity is not provided, or Capacity is negative, then the Quantity sold for the Product is not limited. Capacity will be limited relative to the total number of Customers in the 'Market Size' Configuration Dialog.
   13. Quantity (integer): A reference Quantity sold for each Product in the actual (real-world) Market. If the Quantity is provided then an 'Quantity Error' will be returned as part of the results in the Output Product Array. The Quantity is required if the 'Market Size Option' is set to 'Set to total number of Customers in Product Array'. Change the 'Market Size Option' to 'Set to total number of Customers in WTP Matrix' to avoid specifying a Quantity in the 'Input Product Array'.
   14. Transactions (integer): A reference number of Transactions for each Product in the actual (real-world) Market. Transactions are only relevant if Customers purchase by Volume. That is, the 'Input WTP Matrix' must contain either a 'Volume' field or at least one '_VOL' field. Otherwise each Customer will purchase only a single Product, and the number of Transactions will equal the Quantity sold.
   15. Include (boolean): A Product Attribute that can be edited from the 'Boolean' tab in the Configuration Dialog. Some downstream nodes check this 'Include' column to determine whether the Product should be included when running its algorithm.
   16. Numeric / String / Boolean Value : Any other Numeric, String, or Boolean value is also a Product Attribute and can be changed by this 'Edit Attributes' node.
2. Type: Table
   Input Willingness To Pay Matrix
   Input Willingness To Pay Matrix (double): The Willingness To Pay (WTP) Customer Distribution matrix for each Product column in the Market by each Virtual Customer row. The total number of Virtual Available Customers is equal to the number of rows in the WTP Matrix. The Input WTP Matrix is required as the Products selected in the 'Edit Product Set' are drawn from the column names of the Input WTP Matrix.

   1. Product01, Product02, etc (double): Each of the Products listed in the 'Input Product Array' should have a corresponding column in this 'Input WTP Matrix'. Each row represents a different Virtual Customer, and each value represents the Customer's Willingness To Pay (WTP) for each Product.
   2. Volume (double - optional): The personalized 'Dynamic Volume' of Product demanded by each Virtual Customer. For example, if the 'Input Product Array' contains a list of beverages of Volume 250ml, 330ml, 500ml, 750ml, and 1000ml then a Virtual Customer with a demanded Volume of '1000' could purchase a Quantity of either 4, 3, 2, 1, or 1 of the Products (respectively). If Customers are buying by Volume then they must purchase in whole number integers. For instance, if a Product had a Volume of 250ml but a Customer demanded 300ml then the Customer would only be able to buy 1 of that Product. Note that the excess Volume of 50ml received by the Customer is deemed to be of no value ! The Price, WTP, and Consumer Surplus are all re-scaled by the relative Quantity demanded. When Customers buy in Volume then the Output Transactions field will differ from the Output Quantity field - otherwise these two values ought to be the same. Note that the 'Input Product Array' need not also contain a 'Volume' field. If the Product Volume is missing then the Product is presumed to be sold in Volumes of 1 Unit.
   3. _VOL (double - optional): The per-Product 'Dynamic Volume' (VOL) demanded by each Virtual Customer. This per-Product 'VOL' value will override the general 'Volume'. For example, a Virtual Customer buying laundry detergent might generally demand a 'Volume' of 2 (Litres) but might only demand a '_VOL' of 1 (Litre) for the concentrated detergent Product. Negative values will be replaced with a Demand Volume of zero '0'. If both of the 'Dynamic Volume' values ('Volume' and '_VOL') are missing then a default of '1' will be used.
   4. _PAV (double - optional): The Price Adjustment Variable (PAV) is the percentage adjustment to the Price (typically a Discount) a particular Customer would receive when they Purchase the Product. For example, if the Customer is entitled to a 10% Discount then the 'PAV' would be set to 0.90. The 'Price Adjustment Variable' column is identified by the Product's Name followed by a trailing 'PAV'. The 'PAV' designator can be upper-case or lower-case and may-or-may-not be separated by a space, underscore, or other single character. For example, 'Product_01_PAV' or 'Product 02 PAV' or 'Product03pav'.
   5. _PAF (double - optional): The Price Adjustment Fixed (PAF) is the fixed adjustment to the Product's Price. For example, if Customers pay different amounts for Shipping the Product then this could be modeled using the 'PAF' column. If the WTP Matrix contains both 'PAV' and 'PAF' columns, then the Price is first multiplied by the variable 'PAV' before adding the fixed 'PAF'. The 'Price Adjustment Fixed' column is also identified by the Product's Name followed by a trailing 'PAF' in a manner similar to the 'PAV' designator. The 'PAF' is a per-Unit Price. If the Customer purchases more than one Product then the 'PAF' is multiplied by the Customer's Demand.
   6. _CTS (double - optional): The Cost To Serve (CTS) is the additional Cost that must be incurred when a Product is sold to a particular Customer. This is a Dynamic Cost as some Customers are cheaper to serve than others, and is only incurred if the Customer actually Purchases the Product. The 'Cost To Serve' column is identified by the Product's Name followed by a trailing 'CTS'. The 'CTS' designator can be upper-case or lower-case and may-or-may-not be separated by a space, underscore, or other single character. For example, 'Product_01_CTS' or 'Product 02 CTS' or 'Product03cts'. The Customer's 'CTS' remains unchanged regardless of the Quantity of Product Units products by the Customer.
   7. _CTM (double - optional): The Cost To Make (CTM) depends not upon the individual Customer but upon the number of Customers who Purchase the Product. This 'Cost To Make' can be used to simulate the Law of Diminishing Returns . Starting from the first row in the column, each 'Cost To Make' row represents the incremental Cost of manufacturing each additional Product. If the Product is sold ten-times, then the total Dynamic Cost is the sum of the first 10 CTM rows. The 'Cost To Make' column is also identified by the Product's Name followed by a trailing 'CTM' in a manner similar to the 'CTS' designator.

Output ports

1. Type: Table
   Output Product Array
   Output Product Array : The Output Product Array is based upon the Input Product Array with modified Attribute values. In addition, the Output Product Array appends these columns:

   1. Include : Whether the Product was included in the 'Edit Product Set' and had an Attribute updated. This Boolean Attribute is not overwritten if the 'Include' field is found in the 'Input Product Array' and was selected within the 'Edit Boolean Attributes'.
2. Type: Table
   Output Willingness To Pay Matrix
   Output Willingness To Pay Matrix : The Output WTP Matrix is equivalent to the Input WTP Matrix without any changes. The WTP Matrix is simply passed through the node as a convenience.