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Prius Research for Graduate Student

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by PriusGrad, Apr 22, 2011.

  1. PriusGrad

    PriusGrad New Member

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    Greeting Prius Owners and Chatters,

    I am a current graduate student at University of Texas McCombs School of Business who is working with students from my program as well as several from the LBJ School of Public Affairs. We have been working on a semester long project involving the Prius and have put together a brief research questionnaire. My entire team would greatly appreciate your input.

    Without providing too much leading information, we are seeking to find out more about the perception of the Prius brand from a wide selection of the population. These groups include both target and non-target consumers. Two particular areas of focus has been on (i) those interested in owning a hybrid vehicle, but who have not purchased yet and (ii) those who already own a hybrid vehicle.

    Again, thank you in advance for filling out our research questionnaire and I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have about our research thus far. As an aside, the most surprising revelation for our team has been how misinformed many people are about the Prius. It's staggering!

    QUESTIONNAIRE -> PRIUS SURVEY

    Sincerely,
    Team Prius at McCombs
     
  2. PriusGrad

    PriusGrad New Member

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    Greeting Prius Owners and Chatters,

    I am a current graduate student at University of Texas McCombs School of Business who is working with students from my program as well as several from the LBJ School of Public Affairs. We have been working on a semester long project involving the Prius and have put together a brief research questionnaire. My entire team would greatly appreciate your input.

    Without providing too much leading information, we are seeking to find out more about the perception of the Prius brand from a wide selection of the population. These groups include both target and non-target consumers. Two particular areas of focus has been on (i) those interested in owning a hybrid vehicle, but who have not purchased yet and (ii) those who already own a hybrid vehicle.

    Again, thank you in advance for filling out our research questionnaire and I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have about our research thus far. As an aside, the most surprising revelation for our team has been how misinformed many people are about the Prius. It's staggering!

    QUESTIONNAIRE -> PRIUS SURVEY

    Sincerely,
    Team Prius at McCombs
     
  3. Mark57

    Mark57 2021 Tesla Model 3 LR AWD

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    Are you going to post the summary of responses?
     
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  4. tomstodola

    tomstodola Member

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    Survey sent! good luck on your survey, and your MBA!
     
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  5. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Done.
    Good Luck!
     
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  6. J5A

    J5A Active Member

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    The program won't allow me to un-check one of my responses and the survey won't continue.

    EDIT: Nevermind - the problem was me hosing up was the one preceeeding it. I checked 8, 9 & 10 thinking 10 was "best" instead of 1, 2 & 3.

    The survey allowed me to continue having four choices checked...that may mess up your results if others do that, too.
     
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  7. PriusGrad

    PriusGrad New Member

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    If there is an interest, I would gladly share our collected responses. At this time, it does not appear as though any group member is looking to publish the report, so that could be shared as well.
     
  8. PriusGrad

    PriusGrad New Member

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    Hmmm, that's not cool. Mind me asking which question we trapped you on?
     
  9. J5A

    J5A Active Member

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    "Why WOULD you buy a Prius" section. I have four choices checked and can't un-check one of them for the required three.
     
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  10. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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    Your age groups are just silly.

    0 - 18 includes at most 3 years of legal driving age owners, tops.
    19 - 34 contains 15 years of owners
    35 --60 contains 26 years of owners
    60+ contains 53 years of owners

    This is not even close to an even spread.

    I could not choose to have Toyota target environmentalists.

    I was only able to 'add' one model
     
  11. PriusGrad

    PriusGrad New Member

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    Thanks for taking the time to help - we will revise the way that question is input. You should be able to refresh the page without losing prior pages' inputs, but I understand if you don't care to re-input your answers.
     
  12. PriusGrad

    PriusGrad New Member

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    I understand where your comment is coming from Jimbo. The groups DO seem wide and awkwardly placed at first glance. We went with these groups due to a few very specific marketing viewpoints including spending power, tendency to buy a new vehicle, and most common age demographic groups targeted by auto companies in the US.

    The environmentalist has been noted and will be added to our next round of surveys. It's an obvious one that we somehow missed. Thanks.

    The one model addition is falsely limited as you have noted. It's not ideal for a very knowledgable population such as the members of this forum. That is an oversight on our teams end and has been noted. Interestingly, we have done a good number of these surveys in person, but instead read the questions out loud. Most non-car savvy people have asked how there could even be a different type of Prius. "How will I know which one is the real Prius?"

    Again, thanks for your input. We are often in a vacuum and outside perspective is very helpful to making sure our research methods maintain their targeted integrity.
     
  13. acheslow

    acheslow New Member

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    I figured this one out but as soon as I saw the question I thought that it should be labeled to show that you mean for 1=best.

    One other suggestion - for more actionable results you might consider asking more demographic questions -- country, HH income, # of children, etc. You may find coorelations with people's answers about price, safety, etc.
     
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  14. Rae Vynn

    Rae Vynn Artist In Residence

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    I took it. Got a little confused on a couple of questions, like the "List the top three attributes" one, which has 10 options across the board, and the "why would you NOT buy a Prius"... um, is this supposed to be answered by someone that would buy a Prius, but give the reasons that DON'T affect that decision, or is that the reasons that someone would REJECT the Prius entirely? :huh:

    Anyway, I took the survey.
     
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  15. F8L

    F8L Protecting Habitat & AG Lands

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    I chose the 34 age group despite being 35 because being lumped into the 60 yr old age group doesn't work for a survey of opinions and driver attitudes.
     
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  16. Rae Vynn

    Rae Vynn Artist In Residence

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    Um, wow. We aren't even in the same age group now. *sad face*
     
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  17. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    I feel closer to 35 than 60. Does that count? :p
     
  18. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    Yes, I was confused by those too.

    I wasn't sure about the question "Who is the Prius' most important target market?"

    This to me, was open to a lot of interpretation. Is it who I think is most important, who I think Toyota thinks is most important or who I believe is actually buying Priuses? There are probably others I hadn't thought of...

    I then looked at how much of the survey was left either at that screen and then stopped. Sorry.
     
  19. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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    They are 'hurting' their survey, you only get to about 2/3 done by the graph and then they thank you.

    Of course, they have screwed up the age question so badly even the Prius enthusiasts are lying to them about their age, so it is all for naught.

    (F8L, I claim to be 13 years old and 511 months.)
     
  20. Stev0

    Stev0 Honorary Hong Kong Cavalier

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    That's standard marketing demographics. Marketers considers 35-60 "middle age" and 18-34 "The Desirable demographic" (although that is slowly changing).
     
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