2:2 What is the Management Decision Problem Facing Dupont

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Chapter 2
22 What is the Management Decision Problem
Facing Dupont A Should the Designer Collection
line of carpets be introduced into the
residential market.   2.3 What is the research
marketing problem Facing Dupont A Determine the
consumer preferences and purchase intentions for
the Designer Collection. (i.e. will they buy and
if so what style will they buy)  
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2.7 Develop three suitable research questions
and hypotheses from the marketing research
problem. RQ On what dimensions do consumers
evaluate residential carpets H Consumers
evaluate carpets according to price, style and
durability. RQ Do consumers desire designer
fashion in residential carpeting? H The
residential market is willing to accept designer
carpets i.e. there is a designer-conscious
segment RQ Is there a significantly large
segment (i.e. 25) of the market interested in
designer residential carpets. H A significant
section of the residential market is interested
in designer carpeting. RQ On what variables can
this segment be identified? H It can be
identified by certain demographic and
psychographic characteristics
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Q15 Codebook
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• Chapters 16 and 17
• Run descriptive stats and obtain frequency
  distributions for all variables.

The descriptive statistics provide both an
indication of the underlying distributions of the
variables and an initial indication of the
attitudes and impressions the respondents have
toward carpeting. They are useful for suggesting
whether further analysis needs to be conducted in
more detail.
Q1. 209 respondents owned carpet (87.1 Q2a
63.2 owned a one color traditional carpet Q2b
47.4 owned a multicolored traditional
carpet Q2c 41.6 owned a one-colour designer
carpet Q2d 54.5 owned a multicolor designer
carpet Q3 35.4 consider carpeting to be
important (responses 5-7)
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Q4 13.9 believe that carpeting is a fashion
statement (responses 5-7) Q5 28.7 believe that
carpet is central to their home (responses
5-7) Q6 51 believe that durability is more
important than looks (responses 5-7) Q7a 41.2
believe Stain resistance is an important feature
(responses 5-7) Q7b 27.5 agree that long life
is not an important issue (responses 5-7) Q7c
Fashion distinguishes two groups moderately
fashionable (58.7) (responses 4 5) and not
fashionable (responses 1 2) Q7d It is
important to have carpet match furniture (58.7)
(responses 5-7) Q7e Price distinguishes two
groups price sensitive (41.2) (responses 6 7)
and moderately price sensitive (58.8) (responses
3 4) Q7g Warranties distinguish two groups
warranty important (41.2, responses 5-7) ad
warranty not so important (46.7 (responses 2
3). Q8 35 are likely to buy carpet in the next
3 months (Responses 5-7) Etc.
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Q2 Cross-Tab Q3 (is carpeting important?), Q4 (is
Carpeting fashionable?), Q5 (is carpeting
central?) and Q6 (is carpeting durable?) with the
demographic variables in Q17 to Q21 ) i.e.
gender, marital status, age, education, principle
dwelling. If the results are poor, you may have
to regroup variables in order to obtain valid
results. Interpret the results

• In all initial cross-tab results some of the
  cells need to be recoded since the observed count
  is less than 5.
• Marital status collapse single and other into not
  married
• Collapse age into under 40 and under 40
• Collapse education into college graduate and
  non-graduate
• Collapse is carpeting important etc. into
  not-important (1-3), undecided (4) and important
  (5-7).
• Cross-tabulations of the variables are
  significant (or not significant) at the .05 level
  . i.e. carpets are more important to men than
  women, those who are married, those over 40 and
  those with a college education.

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Q3. Conduct a t-test for each of the seven
attributes listed in Q7 (importance ratings of
attributes) by each of the four responses to Q2.
(What carpet do you own?). There will be 28
t-tests run. Note the Respondents have been
coded as either owning or not owning the style of
carpet mentioned in question 2. Thus the t-test
examines the differences between the owners and
non-owners of carpets of a particular style.
Interpret the results.
T-tests allow us to determine if a difference
exists between groups along some specified
variable. Here we want to determine if
respondents groups by their ownership of styles
of carpets (Q2, i.e. owning carpet style A group,
and not owning carpet style A group) differ on
their ratings of carpet attributes (Q7)
For single-colour traditional styles and
multicolor designer styles no significant
differences exist between owners and non-owners
on ratings of the importance of carpet attributes
(i.e. not significant at .005 level).
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However, significant differences exist between
owners of multicolor traditional style and
single-colour designer carpets. Considering
multicolour traditional styles, we note
differences (in means) between owners and
non-owners on stain resistance, long-life,
matching furniture, company reputation and
warranty. Specifically owners rate stain
resistance, long-life, and warranty as less
important than non-owners, but matching furniture
and brand name as more important. We see this by
noting the means for the two groups.
Multi-colour traditional styles Owners
Non-owners Stain resistant
3.6 4.4 Long-life 3.0 3.6 Matches furniture
5.0 4.4 Well-known maker 5.0 4.3 Warranty
4.0 4.6 This suggests that the owners of these
carpets are more fashion/image conscious and less
function conscious.
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Q4. Conduct a t-test for each of the seven
ratings listed in Q10 (Ratings of the designer
collection) by the response to Q12 (would you
purchase Designer collection). There will be 7
t-tests to run. Interpret the results. All the
t-tests are significant at the .05 level. Those
who purchase designer carpets rate them more
favorably in terms of stain resistance,
fashionable rating, matches furniture and
reputation and less favorably in terms of long
life, price and warranty. The means ratings
are Would purchase Designer
Carpets Yes No stain resistance 4.9 2.3 l
ong life 2.2 5.3 fashionable
rating 4.9 2.3 matches furniture 3.8 1.9 price
1.8 5.0 reputation 4.4 2.1 warranty 1.4
4.5
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Q5. Do the respondents in the survey attach more
importance to price (Q7e) than they do to
warranty (Q7g). Formulate the null and
alternative hypotheses and prescribe an
appropriate statistical test.
Ho stain resistance lt Long life Hi stain
resistance gt long life A paired t-test should be
conducted The difference is significant. I.e.
respondents attach more importance to stain
resistance (mean 3.8), than they do to long
life (mean 3.1)
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Q6. Do respondents attach more importance to
price (Q7e) than they do to warranty (Q7g).
Formulate the null and alternative hypotheses and
prescribe an appropriate statistical test.
Ho price lt warranty Hi price gt warranty A
paired t-test should be conducted The difference
is significant. I.e. respondents attach more
importance to price resistance (mean 4.7),
than they do to long life (mean 4.1)
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Q7 Do those who prefer different styles of
carpet (A, B, C, or D in Q9e) differ in terms of
their agreement with the four statements of Q13.
Conduct the appropriate analyses. Interpret the
results.
A one way analysis of variance should be
conducted for each statement of Q13. All the
four ANOVAs are significant at the .05 level.
Thus the means of the groups are not
equal. Carpeting is functional is most agreed to
by those who prefer Style A Associated with the
latest styles is most agreed to by those who
prefer Style D Important to buy best quality is
most agreed to by whose who prefer style A I am
fashionable is most agreed to by those who prefer
style D.
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Q8 Do the different age groups (Q19) differ in
terms of their opinions about carpeting as
expressed in Q13? Conduct the appropriate
analyses. Interpret the results.
A one way ANOVA should be conducted for each
statement in Q13. Three of the 4 ANOVAs are
significant at the .05 level. Thus the means of
these variables in all groups are not
equal. Associated with the latest styles is most
agreed to by 18-24 year olds Important to buy
best quality is most agreed to by 41-60 year
olds I am fashionable is most agreed to by 18-24
year olds.