Summary This study examined the consumers' preference on three brands of chips: Wheat Thins, Flat Earth, and Sun Chips which were chosen based on their similarity in price and position in the market. Data was collected from 68 respondents during a 5-day period. The collected data was analyzed using several statistical methods from a correlated t-test, between-group t-test, chi-squared significance test, frequency count, simple linear correlation, regression analysis, discriminant analysis, ANOVA/MANOVA, factor analysis, to cluster analysis. The results of these analyses were examined for statistical significance. If the result was significant, then it could be projected to the population, or in other words, in 85 or more samples out of every 100 samples taken from the same population, it would be expected that the result would be the same. The result from this study indicated that the respondents, on average, had fairly neutral attitude towards all three brands based on the brand index score which was a compilation of the respondents' responses on the ten Likert's items. Sun Chips led the group with the highest brand index score (Mean=32.7) followed by Olay (Mean=31.4) and Tone (Mean=27.6) and these results could be projected to the rest of the population. While Sun Chips's and Wheat Thins' brand index scores and preference scores were in the same range as each other, Flat Earth, on the other hand, followed quite far behind. On average, the respondents did not prefer Flat Earth over other brands. However, when looking at the effectivness of the ads, Flat Earth's ad proved to be the most effective withint this study. For Flat Earth, the result was the opposite, as high as 50% of the respondents moved up after seeing the ad indicating that the ad was successful in changing the respondents' preference toward the brand. For Wheat Thins, about 44% of the respondents moved down meaning that the majority of the respondents indicated that they would be less likely to buy the brand after seeing the ad than before seeing the ad. Also for Sun Chips, 44% of the respondents moved down meaning that the almost half of the respondents indicated that they would be less likely to buy the brand after seeing the ad than before seeing the ad. Although many of the analyses performed in this study can be projected to the population, it is worth noting some limitations of this study. First, the sample size of 68 respondents is relatively small and non-random which can inappropriately skew the findings. Second, the lack of a control group limits the justification of the findings, since many individual differences can affect the results. Finally, the lack of randomization of the three brands (they were always displayed in the same order) can adversely affect the preference for the three brands. |