Identification of Priority Areas of Improvement for Small Passenger Car Segment in Indian Market

Abstract

The present study reports an investigation on identification of priority areas of improvement for small passenger car segment in the Indian market. A total of 750 responses on importance and satisfaction rating of 16 attributes in a 7-point Likert-type ordinal rating scale were collected from small car owners in Delhi using a paper and pencil instrument. Revised importance-performance analysis with fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm was used to identify the priority areas of improvement in small passenger cars. The analysis technique effectively identified the factor structure of consumer satisfaction and derived various management schemes for small passenger cars by analysing consumers’ importance and satisfaction data. The priority areas of improvement were obtained by comparing the factor structure with the management scheme. The results indicate that safety, security and advanced vehicle technology options are the priority areas of improvement for small passenger cars. The study identified that the consumers are satisfied with the performance of purchase price, driving range, annual fuel cost, annual maintenance cost, top speed, seating comfort, appearance/style, emission, acceleration time and resale value in small cars, indicating the need to retain these attributes at their present levels to maintain competitive advantage. The engine power is identified under ‘possible overkill’, which indicates an opportunity for automobile manufacturers to possibly reduce the engine power to save some resources and reallocate the same for improvement of priority attributes. The findings of the present study provide valuable insight into the product specifications that the automobile manufacturers should focus on, to make new-generation small cars more attractive to Indian consumers.