Nick Thomas is the CEO of auto concepts, A new division of one of the largest US automobile manufacturers with multiple divisions representing several auto and truck. This company has been slowly losing market share to other competitors. Auto concepts was created to develop totally new models that are more in tune with today’s changing automobile market a primary consideration in this development effort is the US Department of energy’s clean cities initiative that advocates the use of Alternative automobile fuels such as propane, natural gas, biodiesel, electric, hybrid, and/or ethanol. At the same time, management believes that the Internet of things (IoT) with its capabilities of safe mobile connection, self or assisted driving, and Infotainment onboard diagnostics, will be a prominent part of future vehicles. Nick Thomas knows he must come up with some innovation in automobile designs and engineering, but he is not certain in which direction he should guide his division. But he needs to find out what consumers’ attitudes or to word fuel prices and global warming. This knowledge will help him determine A direction for the company in terms of automobile design. Nick also needs more data on consumer preferences. Will they want to stay with today’s standard compact or hybrid, or might they be interested in radically different models that promise much higher fuel economy?
Nick Thomas, CEO of Auto concepts, has hired CMG research to perform a survey. Cory Walker Waze president of CMT research has a good grasp of the research objective needed to conduct a research study. Furthermore, he has taken some time to write operational definitions of the constructs, so he has done most of the preliminary work on the questionnaire. The next step is questionnaire design. Corey and Nick have decided that the most reasonable approach to the survey is to use an online Panel. This alternative, while expensive, will guarantee companies that operate such panels as sure buyers of their services that the sample will represent any general target market for a buyer for that buyer market that a buyer desires to have represented. In the case of the auto concepts, the market of interest is all automobile owners meaning that practically all adults qualify. Consequently, it is time to design a questionnaire Suitable for administrator administration to an online panel of adult consumers.
Corey Rodgers of CMG research was happy to call Nick Thomas to inform him that auto concepts survey data were collected and ready for analysis. Of course, Cory had other marketing research projects and meetings scheduled with present and prospective clients, so he called in his data analyst, Celeste Brown. Cory said, Celeste, it is time to do some analysis on the survey we did for Nick Thomas on auto concepts. I am going to assign you primary responsibility for data analysis on this important project. For now, let’s just get a feel of what data looks like, so do some description in order to reveal the basic patterns and to gain an understanding of the nature of the variability in the data. Let’s meet tomorrow at 3:30 PM and see what you have found.
Your task in this part of the case is to take the role of Celeste Brown, data analysis the data set for a total concepts survey is now ready for descriptive analysis. The file name is auto concepts. The data sets sample Represents American households, and it includes owners as well as known nonowners of vehicles because any new vehicle will not hit the market for another 3 to 5 years.
Question Description | Codes | Value Labels |
| Size of Hometown or city | 1,2,3,4,5 | Under 10k, 10k to 100k, 100k to 500k, 500k to 1 million, 1 million and more |
| Gender | 0,1 | Male, Female |
| Marital Status | 0, 1 | Unmarried, married |
| No. of people in family | Actual Number | No labels |
| Age Category | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | 18 to 24, 25 to 34, 35 to 44, 45 to 54, 55 to 64, 65 and older |
| Education Category | 1, 2,3 ,4, 5 | Less than high school, high school diploma, some college, college degree, postgraduate degree |
| Income Category | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | Under $25k, $25k to 49k, $50k to $74k, $75k to $125k, $125k and more |
| Dwelling type | 1, 2, 3, 4 | Single family, Multiple family, Condominium/ townhouse, Mobile home |
| I am worried about global warming Gasoline emission contributes to global warming We need to do something to slow global warming We should be looking for gasoline substitues | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 | Very strongly disagree, strongly disagree, Disagree, Neither disagree nor agree, Agree, Strongly agree, Very strongly agree |
| Desirability: 1-seat motorcycle electric Desirability: 2-seat runabout sport electric Desirability: 2-seat runabout hatchback gasoline hybrid Desirability: 4-seat economy diesel hybrid Desirability: 5-seat economy gasoline | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 | Very undesirable, Undesirable, Somewhat desirable, Neutral, Somewhat desirable, Desirable, Very desirable |
| Vehiclele: Novelist Lifestyle: Innovator Lifestyle: Trendsetter Lifestyle: Forerunner Lifestyle: Mainstreamer Lifestyle: Classic | 1,……..,7 | Desonot describe me at all……. Describes me perfectly |
| Favourite television show type | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 | Comedy, Drama, Movies/mini-series, News/ documentary, Reality, Science fiction, Sports |
| Favorite radio genre | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | Classic pop & rock, Country, Easy listening, Jazz & Blues, Pop & chart, Talk |
| Favorite magazine type | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 | Business & MOney, Music and Entertainment, Family and Parenting, Sports & Outdoors, Home & Garden, Cooking-Food & Wine, Trucks-cars & Motorcycle, News -Politics & Current Events |
| Favourite local Newspaper section | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 | Editorial, Business, Local News, National News, Sports, Entertainment, Do not read |
| Use of online blogs Use of content communities Use of social network sites Use online games Use of virtual worlds | 0, 1, 2, 3 | Never, 1- 2 time per day, 3- 4 times per day, 5+ times per day |
For each question below (question 1 to 5), it is your task to conduct a descriptive analysis, determine the scaling assumptions underlying each question, run the proper descriptive analysis, and interpret the findings.
- What is the demographic composition of the sample?
- How do respondents feel about (1) concern for global warming and (2) taking personal responsibility for fuel economy?
- What type of automobile model is the most desirable to people in the sample? What type is the least desirable?
4. Describe the “traditional” media usage of respondents in the sample.
5. Describe the social media usage of the respondents in the sample.
Wu meets Celeste brown the same evening who was working on Auto Concepts Dataset. Celeste brown wants him to help him to solve the following two questions so that both of them can reach Nick Thomas to give respective updates from their end. Use Auto Concepts Data to solve the following questions 6 to 8 using the concepts of inferential analysis and hypothesis testing
- The Auto Concepts principals believe that the desirability on the part of the American public for each of the automobile models under consideration is the following:
- Whether gender-wise market segmentation is relevant to NICK Thomas with reference to the desirability of the four-seat economy hybrid model?
- Is the preference for radio and television the same?
