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The Changing Consumer Perception

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India is poised to become a major Auto hub in the near future. Indian car industry is changing rapidly, so is the mindset of Indian Consumers. We, at the Great Lakes Institute of Management, took an initiative to find out that whether the changing ground realities have also changed the India Auto Consumer’s mindset vis-a-vis their perception of the abilities of various Indian and foreign Auto manufacture to deliver the much sought after attributes in a car.

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We deliberately, instead of taking individual cars, took BRANDS (as we wanted to analyse the brand perception mapping), and let the consumer decide which brand will he buy (Note: It is important to note that in some cases, though a consumer may covet a brand highly e.g. BMW, but might not intend buying it due to many reasons. So we specifically framed question to analyse the purchase intention), and the attributes for which he will go for that particular brand.

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It was surprising to find the changing perception of the consumer towards TATA, especially after it being the proud owner of Jaguar and LR on one hand, and the maker of the worlds smallest, and the most economical economical (& affordable) car Nano on the other.

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There were many more surprising results as well, have a look…

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The Result (Survey Dated 8th Decemper, 2009)

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Attribute Mileage:

Highest: MARUTI- Car people would like to buy the most for its fuel efficiency (eg. NANO).

LOWEST: FORD- Car people are least like to buy it were for its fuel efficiency (mileage).

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Attribute Safety:

Highest: TATA- Car people would like to buy the most for its Safety preparedness.

LOWEST: FORD- Car people are least like to buy it were for its Safety preparedness.

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Attribute Cost:

Highest: TATA- Car people would like to buy the most for its cost effectiveness (eg. NANO).

LOWEST: FORD- Car people are least like to buy it were for its cost (value for money).

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Attribute Comfort:

Highest: FORD- Car people would like to buy the most for its Comfort (e.g. Jaguar).

LOWEST: MARUTI- Car people are least like to buy it were for its Comfort.

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Attribute After Sales Service (Maintenance cost, frequency and accessibility):

Highest: MARUTI- Car people would like to buy the most for its After Sales Service.

LOWEST: TATA- Car people are least like to buy it were for its After Sales Service.

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The Process

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Cars Analyzed

(Survey Question: Which Brand of car will you choose?)

1. Tata
2. Honda
3. Maruti
4. Ford
5. Hyundai

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Attributes Surveyed

(Survey Question: What factor motivates you to buy this brand?)

1. Comfort
2. Safety
3. Mileage
4. Cost (Price)
5. After Sales Service

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Respondents

Number: 114

Age Group: 24 to 35

Education: Graduation and above

Profession: Management Students

Ethnicity: Indians- Representing all states of India

Social Class: Middle class and above

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Analysis Carried Out

Statistical Tool: Correspondence Analysis

Mapping Dimensions: 2

Test: Chi Square

Test Value: 73.897

Test Significance: 0.000

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Available Downloads:

SPSS Output File For the Data Analysis

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Relative Importance of Attribute of a Car

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Various attributes goes behind selecting a car for purchase. Even more of these attributes goes in a consumers mind before evaluating the supremacy of a car over another.

After good literature review, and discussion with experts, we came to the conclusion that the most sought after attributes for a car are:

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1. Quality
2. Price
3. Image (Perception)
4. Environmental Friendliness

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Although as such these attributes look to be “Soft-attributes”, but we went ahead, and made them “hard”, with further discussion with the experts, and cluster analysis.

The sub attributes for each of these attributes are:

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Quality

• Fuel Efficiency (Mileage)
• Speed (Top Speed and acceleration)
• Saftey (Saftey of life and against theft)
  
• Comfort

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Price

• High (Above INR 14 Lakhs)
• Medium (Between INR 7-14 Lakhs)
• Low (Below 7 Lakhs)

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Image (Perception)

• Elegant
• Convenient
• Sporty

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Environmental Friendliness

• Recycleability of Parts
• Reduced Particulate Emissions
• Availability of CNG Option

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On performing Conjoint analysis of these main attributes (20 attribute cards, 50 respondents, 15% margin of error), we found that level of importance of these attributes are as under (Kendall’s Tau 0.611 with sig 0.001, Pearson’s R 0.795 with sig 0.000):

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• Rank 1: Price
• Rank 2: Quality
• Rank 3: Image
• Rank 4: Environmental Friendliness

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