Consumers’ Activities for Brand Selection - Questionnaire Investigation to Automobile Purchasing Case

Consumers often buy higher ranked brand after they are bored using current brand goods. This may be analyzed utilizing matrix. Suppose past purchasing data are set input and current purchasing data are set output, then transition matrix is identified using past and current data. If all brand selections are composed by the upper shifts, then the transition matrix becomes an upper triangular matrix. Questionnaire investigation to automobile purchasing case is executed and above structure is confirmed. If transition matrix is identified, S-step forecasting can be executed. Generalized forecasting matrix components’ equations are introduced. We have made a questionnaire investigation concern automobile purchase before (Takeyasu et al.,(2007)). In that paper, questionnaire was executed mainly on an urban area. In this paper, we make investigation on a rural area and make comparison for both of them. Planners for products need to know whether their brand is higher or lower than other products. Matrix structure makes it possible to ascertain this by calculating consumers’ activities for brand selection. Thus, this proposed approach makes it possible to execute an effective marketing plan and/or establish a new brand.