Conjoint Analysis

Table of Contents
Objective...............................................................................................................1

Background...........................................................................................................1

Approach...............................................................................................................1

Methodology:........................................................................................................2

PART A..............................................................................................................2

Primary Data Collection:................................................................................2

PART B..............................................................................................................3

Analysis:.........................................................................................................3

Findings and Analysis:..........................................................................................3

Objective
Objective of the research is to select the ideal attributes of the brand endorser, based on
customer preference, as a part of selecting the primary components of an advertisement for a
small commercial vehicle, TATA Ace Zip, which is facing reduction in sales due to stiff

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competition in market. Along with that, the research also focussed on finding the ideal mode
of communication and the content of the advertisement, based on customer preferences.

Background
Recently there was news that the vehicle Tata Ace Zip was losing market share to its major
competitor Mahindra Jeeto. When we tried to analyse the issue, we could not find any
technical deficiency cited by any of the industry experts. Neither price was the issue as the
vehicle was priced below its competitor. But one stark difference was found in the
advertisement section as Mahindra has been aggressively branding its product through ads in
print media and television. But at present Tata does not have a commercial ad for Ace-Zip.
Hence we thought it would be a real-time experience to understand the selection
methodology of the basic components of an ad.

Approach
Next was the task of enlisting the major components of an ad.

Upon brainstorming, we found that there are 2 major component of an ad.

(i) Endorser
(ii) Other advertisement properties

i. Endorser: The following are the attributes which have to be considered to make a
decision of the endorser:
a. Gender (Male or Female)
b. Profession (Actor, Sportsperson or General Public)
c. Age-group (<30, 30 to 45 or >45)
d. Personality (Testimonial/ Brand Advocate or Promotional model)
e. Regional ad or National ad

ii. Other advertisement properties: The following properties of an ad influence the

audience :
a. Advertisement platform (Print media, Audio or Video)
b. Length of the ad ( <30, 30 to 60 or >60 seconds)
c. Ad type (Feature based, Social or Emotional)

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At this point we had 72 combinations of gender, profession, age-group, personality and
regional/national to choose from in the endorser category and 27 combinations in the ad-
properties category.

Upon consensus, we selected one combination from the endorser category and one
combination from ad-properties category.

But this vehicle belongs to the Small Commercial Vehicle segment which caters to a variety
of target segments like the unemployed youth willing to start a business, people wanting to
use the vehicle for captive load or even for giving the vehicle on contract. So to check
whether our selection of ad-properties and endorser is in line with the requirements of the
audience we had to conduct a survey and apply conjoint analysis.

Methodology:
PART A
Primary Data Collection:
Taking into account the stiff competition that is being faced in the market for small
commercial vehicles, we undertook a survey to find what the ideal choice of brand
ambassador preferred by individuals for small commercial vehicles is. The primary data for
this research was collected through questionnaire to be filled by the respondents in person,
through a field visit as well as by mailing the online questionnaire to the respondents. The
questionnaire we developed contained questions related to the attributes consumers usually
prefer to see in brand ambassadors of small commercial vehicles. Consumers were given an
elaborate view of the concept & asked various questions to test the concepts (in this case, the
endorsers as well as the advertisements) perceived value, consumer preferences, need-gap
level. The questionnaire also captured information about various features of the
advertisements which might appeal to the audience.

The answers helped to analyse and indicate whether our hypothesis regarding what primary
components an advertisement for a small commercial vehicle (the concept) has a broad and
strong consumer appeal.

The questionnaire was segmented into two parts first to gain consumer preferences to have
an insight on what they want to see and how they perceive. Secondly, the bundles of offerings
combining different level of attributes based on our constraint and feasibility. We bundled

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various combinations of attributes, both for the endorser and the advertisements and weeded
out combinations which are certainly infeasible or based on our assumptions of what the
consumers are willingly ready to trade off with other options. This data was then analysed
with the help of Microsoft Excel.

PART B
Analysis:
After removing all the infeasible combinations, we were finally left with xx feasible
combinations for the endorser and yy feasible combinations for the advertisements. Using
these responses, we performed Conjoint Analysis.

Conjoint analysis attempts to determine the relative importance, consumers attach to salient
attributes and the utilities they attach to levels of attributes. It involves the following steps:

1. Find the relative importance of each attribute to a group of consumers (Utility)

2. Find the importance of each level of attribute to same consumer group (Part-Worth)
3. Find Overall utility/Usefulness/Consumer developed value (CDV)
4. New Product concepts are prioritized in descending order (best to worst)

Findings and Analysis:

Conclusion:

By thoroughly analysing the results of the conjoint analysis,