t – Test

To test the satisfaction level of consumers and identify the areas on which the satisfaction is
low and needs improvement.

Below mentioned are the steps involved in t - Test:

1. Formulate the null and alternate hypothesis.

2. Identify the following pieces of information needed to calculate the test statistic.

a. The sample mean (x̄).

b. The population mean (μ).

c. The sample standard deviation (s).

d. Number of observations (n).

3. Calculate the t-stat value using the following formula:

4. Find the t-table value. You need two values to find this:

The alpha level: taken as 5% in this case.

The degrees of freedom, which is the number of items in the sample (n) minus – 1

5. Compare Step 3 to Step 4. If the value from Step 3 is greater than the value calculated in
Step 4, we can reject the null hypothesis.

In our case the mean satisfaction was calculated for the 11 attributes across 100 observations
for each. Thereafter the t-value was calculated using the formula:

t-value = (sample mean – 3) / standard error

Cut off level of 3 was taken because it was the median level of the scale.

Standard error is determined by dividing the standard deviation by square root of sample size.
 Null Hypothesis: H0: Satisfaction Mean <= 3
Alternate Hypothesis: H1: Satisfaction Mean > 3
The level of significance was taken as 5% so the critical region was > 1.645 (one tail test)
Thus consumers were considered to be satisfied for attributes which had a t-value greater than
1.645.

RATINGS
Mean Standard Standard
1 2 3 4 5 Satisfaction deviation Error t-value
CATEGORY

Healthcare 40 25 17 14 4 2.17 1.2148 0.1215 -6.8321

Hygiene &
Sanitation 20 33 30 8 9 2.53 1.1674 0.1167 -4.0262
Personal Care 8 19 46 19 8 3 1.0150 0.1015 0.0000
Mattress, Bed
sheets and
Pillows 15 28 28 22 7 2.78 1.1598 0.1160 -1.8969
Plastic Products 7 23 40 22 8 3.01 1.0298 0.1030 0.0971
Kitchenware 17 30 32 17 4 2.61 1.0815 0.1081 -3.6062
Groceries 14 22 37 16 11 2.88 1.1745 0.1174 -1.0217
Snacks &
Packed Foods 5 15 32 31 17 3.4 1.0918 0.1092 3.6638
Stationary 8 17 28 26 21 3.35 1.2175 0.1218 2.8747
Electrical and
Electronics
Items 23 30 30 12 5 2.46 1.1229 0.1123 -4.8088
Apparels 34 27 26 6 7 2.25 1.1924 0.1192 -6.2901

Since the t-value was greater than 1.645 only for Stationary and Snacks & Packed Foods, we can
conclude that the consumers were only satisfied with these two product categories.