An Empirical Evidence on Consumer Preferences of Compact Automobiles in Uzbekistan

Abstract

Most consumers tend to evaluate the key attributes of a product as a whole, rather than independently. The consumers act in the similar fashion when they go to buy an automobile. Therefore, conjoint analysis is very useful for car manufacturers to understand intentions of consumers. Based on previous studies on conjoint analysis and consultations with the specialists who are familiar with Uzbekistan car market, this study decided to conduct the research applying six attributes such as model, safety, color, price, fuel efficiency and maintenance cost satisfaction and their nineteen relative levels. Further, respondents sorted out to four social-economic groups such as age, gender, education level and monthly income. Survey conducted among 800 respondents who live in four cities with biggest population such as Tashkent, Samarkand, Namangan and Andijan. The research selected those people as respondents that had plans to purchase car models in the future or who had an experience to own one of these models. SPSS Statistics 22 package was used to analyze the collected data to reveal the results of Conjoint Analysis. According to the findings, price was found to be the most important attribute for consumers during their compact car purchase. The price is followed by fuel efficiency and safety attributes. Maintenance cost, model and colour attributes were least preferred attributes by respondents. This study is useful as a reference for marketers of compact car manufacturers who currently work and manufacturers have purposes to invest, launch vehicles and increase their car sales and enlarge their consumer market in Uzbekistan.