Mgmt 600 - Consumer Patterns

Consumer Patterns

Susan

MGMT600-1203B-05

Colorado Technical University Online

August 26, 2012

John Cote

Introduction

Qualities or attributes of a manufactured good, individual or episode that has the ability to take on various quantities or aggregates are referred to as variables. Researchers manipulate these variables during the course of their studies in an attempt to arrive at a conclusion in regards to the collected data. There are two such variables that I will be addressing throughout the course of this paper: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative variables would include items such as gender, religion or color; whereas quantitative variables would include items such as size, height or weight. I will also be covering whether these variables are continuous or discrete (CTU, 2012).

Tracking Quantitative Objects

In the case of WidgeCorp the tracking of snack food can be an important statistic if the company wishes to improve sales or services. Therefore, the three quantitative items I would collect from our 1-800 service customers would be the call wait time (continuous), if a purchase was made (discrete), and finally the amount of the purchase per caller (continuous).

Discrete Variable

A variable that can only take on a limited quantity of value is referred to as a discrete variable (Bowerman, O'Connell, Orris, & Murphree, 2012). All qualitative and some quantitative variables are discrete. In the case of WidgeCorp a buying customer will be recorded as 1 and a non-buying customer will be recorded as 0, because this variable is unable to take up all values between 0 and 1 it is a discrete variable. This variable will allow WidgeCorp to calculate the percentage of paying customers, while another use of this information will be to help increase sales of non-paying customers.

Continuous Variable

A continuous variable is able to take on any value as long as it falls between its lowest value and its highest value (Bowerman, O'Connell, Orris, & Murphree, 2012). In the case of WidgeCorp this could mean any dollar amount no matter the size; for instance, the acquisition of customer A might be $3.00, while the acquisition of customer B might be $40.00. Similarly, the call wait time for customer A might be 3 minutes, while the call wait time for customer B might be 15 minutes.

Conclusion

Variables, whether qualitative or quantitative will help WidgeCorp not only improve customer service but also attain their business objectives. First off, if WidgeCorp wants to decrease