( Word Limit 1000 words)
The cellular phone division of Conglomerate plc has teamed up with a PC manufacturer to develop, produce and market a novel hybrid combination of a ‘personal digital assistant’ (PDA) and a ‘smart’ cellular phone, named ConneCtor. It transmits and receives data and voice (unlike competing PDAs that are concerned only with data).
ConneCtor is essentially a cellular phone incorporating an LCD touch screen and an enhanced keyboard (as well as the standard buttons found on a phone). It performs the usual cellular phone functions and such personal information management (PIM) functions as calendar, calculator and address book. It can send and receive faxes, voice messages and email. Users can input data by typing on the keyboard, by writing on the screen in ‘digital ink’ or by speaking into the phone (it includes voice recognition software). A unique feature of ConneCtor is its linkage via wireless local area networks to other PDAs.
ConneCtor can be seen as a development of Apple’s Newton PDA which was launched (unsuccessfully) in 1993. By 1995 the PDA market in the USA has grown in four major areas: PIM, mobile communications, specialised vertical applications (e.g. physician scheduling) and as a supplementary gateway to the Internet. Although the PDA has four major applications, it is still primarily targeted at ‘road warriors’ or ‘mobile professionals’. This group consists of 25m people in the USA, of whom 5m travel with a notebook computer. The majority of these also have a cellular phone and send and receive a large number of messages and data. A standard PDA cannot meet their needs.
Conglomerate plc wants to develop a marketing strategy for this new product. It needs to identify segments within the market for PDAs, determine how to target the appropriate segment(s) and how it should position ConneCtor in the(se) segment(s). Data from the survey of the market commissioned by Conglomerate plc can be found in pdata2.sav (attached to this email). The survey included a screening item that asked respondents “Have you used or would consider using a PDA?”. Only those respondents answering “yes” are retained for further analysis here.
The questionnaire asked respondents to provide data on their uses of communications and information technologies, their working patterns and associated demographic/profiling variables as follows:
x1 Whenever new technologies emerge in my field, I am amongst the first to adopt them. (1 = strongly disagree…7 = strongly agree)
How often do you use the following: (1 = never…7 = always)
x2 Radio paging?
x3 Telephone or voice mail?
x4 Scheduling or contact management tools?
x5 How often do others send you time-sensitive information (e.g. work orders)?
x6 How often do you have to send time-sensitive information whilst away from your office? (1 = never…7 = daily)
x7 How much time do you spend away from the office?(1 = 0%…7 = 70% or more)
x8 How important is wireless communication to you?(1 = not important…7 = very important)
x9 How important is it for you to share information rapidly with colleagues whilst away from an office location?(1 = not important…7 = very important)
Next, respondents were asked how much they were willing to pay for a PDA with the following features: instant communication from PDA to PDA, cellular phone, radio pager, fax and email, calendar, address book, paperless note pad and voice recognition software.
x10 Monthly (for all the services that you use)?
x11 Invoice price for PDA with all features?
Next, information was collected about the respondents themselves.
x12 Age?
x13 Education?(1 = high school, 2 = some college, 3 = college, 4 = graduate degree)
x14 Income?($)
Industry or occupation?(0 = no, 1 = yes)
x15 Construction?
x16 Emergency?(fire, police, ambulance etc)
x17 Sales?(insurance, pharmaceuticals etc)
x18 Maintenance and service?
x19 Professional?(lawyer, consultant etc)
x20 Do you currently own a PDA?(0 = no, 1 = yes)
Do you read any of the following magazines: (0 = no, 1 = yes)
x21 Business Week?
x22 Personal Computing?
x23 Hunting and Fishing?
x24 Modern Gourmet?
Imagine that it is 1995 and you have been commissioned by Conglomerate plc to analyse this data set and prepare a short report (1000 words maximum plus an appendix if required. Do NOT include all your unedited SPSS output) which addresses the following issues:
1. Identify whether (or not) there exist any distinct segments within the market.
2. Discuss the relative attractiveness of the segment(s). Which segment(s) should Conglomerate plc target?