Research Analysis

Gross Pointe Associates And The “Microvan”

By Nammn Joshii
1. Analysing Histograms for each variable.

● Most of the responses are roughly normally

distributed
● Homlrgst: 77% of respondents have the largest home
in their neighborhood
● Accessfun: Only 7% of respondents highly appreciate
the accessories of vehicles (scores 6-7)

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2. Relationship between the 30 attribute variables and the target mvliking variable.

There are multiple variables which are corelated, due to which the coefficient and p-value does not give the actual
significance of the variable. After doing regression the following variables turned out to have abnormal coefficients:

1) Secbigger (-): people who like their second car bigger than sedan seem to like microvan (+).
2) Safeimpt (~0): people who are concerned about safety seem to have higher tendency toward micro van (+).
3) Homlrgst (-): people who have a large house seem to be more willing to buy micorvan (+).
4) Kidbulk (-): people who have kids with bulky items seem to be more willing to buy micorvan (+).
5) Nordtrps (+): people who do not go to road trips seem to be reluctant to buy microvan (-).
6) Strngwrn (-): we do not expect any relationship between warranty and people’s willingness to buy micorvan (~0)
7) Passnimp (+): we do not expect any relationship between being passionate about job and people’s willingness to
buy micorvan (~0)

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 3. Descriptive names for the factors

Factor 4
Factor 2 Pro-safety users
Pro-compact car users

Factor 1 Factor 3 Factor 5

Elite Users High Utility family car users Pro-environment users
(High Spenders)

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4. Results from regression using the saved factor scores as the independent variables and liking as compared to the
prior regression

● After using the factors for fitting a linear regression model to predict mvliking variable, we found out that Factor
RC1 and Factor RC2 have positive while Factor RC4 has a negative effect on mvliking with a p-value close to 0.

● Factor RC3 and RC5 have a p-value greater than the alpha value of 0.05 making them statistically insignificant in
determining the mvliking variable. Furthermore, we did an ANOVA test with the model with 3 factors and it was
very close to the model with 5 factors.

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5. Are the clusters make sense? On what factor scores do they differ?

Naming the clusters based on their characteristics in terms of the ‘needs and wants’ represented by the underlying
factors.

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6. How the clusters vary on the concept liking (mvliking) variable.

● In order to determine how the clusters varied on the concept of ‘mvliking’ we made a crosstab after
grouping scores 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9 together.

● Cluster 1 - Significant proportion of the people in the cluster have a ‘low liking’ towards the concept
product

● Cluster 2 - People’s opinion about the concept product is almost evenly distributed

● Cluster 3 - Significant proportion of the people in the cluster have a ‘high liking’ towards the
microvan concept car. This is the cluster we would want to target for the product, ‘microvan’

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7. Analyzing Demographics

Age Annual Income Annual Mileage Education Kids Recycle

Cluster 1 19-35 $0-50K 0-19K Less formal education 0-1 Average

Cluster 2 50+ $100K+ 15-22K Undergraduate or higher 1-2 More

Cluster 3 36-50 $50-150K 22K+ Undergraduate or higher 2-3 Less

● Cluster 1 prefers cheaper cars because their income and do not make a decision based on size of car which makes
sense that may or may not have a big family
● Cluster 2 favors a luxury car and does not prefer a compact van, which is understandable because they have
higher income and highly probable that by this age if they had kids they would be old enough
● Cluster 3 prioritizes the functionality, style and size of the vehicles, which makes sense because they earn
enough and have a larger family 8
8. Focus group recommendations

A. Which of segment(s) should GPA target?

● Recommended targeted segment for Microvan should be between the age group 36 - 50 years with 2+ kids and
annual income level between 51k-150k because from our quantitative analysis we found that this segment was
inclined to prefer highly functional compact car that not only helps their family’s commuting needs but also
serves their style quotient.

B. How can car manufacturers position the microvan to attract new customers?

● To attract new customers, we should position Microvan as a highly functional family car which is not only stylish
and loaded with features to cater eclectic family needs but also invokes sense of pride in owning the car.

● In order to achieve this positioning a cross platform marketing campaign should be carried out to trigger their
emotional and functional needs through print, broadcast, internet and outdoor media. The campaign should
revolve around the idea of a mid aged family travelling with their kids going on a vacation in the Microvan and are
having a gala time together while showing off the car to their friends.
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9. Assumptions and Limitations of research so far, and consider next steps.

Limitations:

● Sample size can be a concern since the usable dataset consists only 400 examples.
● As the data is reported by respondents (not observed), it might not reflect the actual beliefs. E.g. people are
reluctant to reveal their actual income in surveys.
● There might be some useful questions which are missing and could be helpful for the research. E.g. would you be
willing to pay a premium price for a microvan?

Assumptions:

● We are assuming that these sample of 400 observations can represent the the whole market which is not the case
in reality and there are always some variations.

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10. Other Things to consider…

● This descriptive research already had a cognitive bias originating from the ongoing trend of “increase in
purchase interest among affluent couples with 1 or 2 children” and revolves around this original trend.

● We feel a similar research/focus group needs to be conducted to also check the potential purchase interest
of microcars for its commercial use in logistics as a delivery vehicle or as a luxury cab.

● Additionally, we would reduce the number of questions to 50 rather than 150

● Increase the number of respondents within the focus group by sending a the survey to a car dealer and asking
them to get it filled by their customers. .

● Conduct interviews with the influencers in the auto industry.

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Appendix

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Cluster means on factors - 1

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Cluster means on factors - 2

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Factor Descriptions

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Crosstab Analysis for Cluster vs Liking Variable

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 Crosstab Analysis for Identifying Segment Descriptors

Age Group Income Group

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Miles Group Gender

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Recycle Number of Kids

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Education Group

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