The purpose of multidimensional scaling (MDS) is to provide a visual representation of the pattern of proximities (i.e., similarities or distances) among a set of objects. For example, given a matrix of perceived similarities between various brands of air fresheners, MDS plots the brands on a map such that those brands that are perceived to be very similar to each other are placed near each other on the map, and those brands that are perceived to be very different from each other are placed far away from each other on the map.