Consumer Preference Toward Super-Mini Cars in Malaysia: An Importance-Performance Analysis Approach

Abstract

There are many manufacturers in the growing Malaysian road vehicles industrial sector, of which, a subsector is the super-mini car. These are small cars with saloon body or hatchback and an engine size ranging from 1.0–1.5 l. There is a growing interest among consumers in Malaysia for super-mini cars due to perceived high performance and style at relatively lower car prices. This research explores consumer preferences toward super-mini cars in Malaysia to guide its future development and marketing. An Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) was used to measure consumers’ perception of the importance and performance of eight attributes of super-mini cars which were identified from extant literature. A survey was conducted on 100 respondents based on convenience sampling in Klang Valley. Using the median of all eight attributes as crosshair, five attributes were perceived to be of low importance/low performance. Ease and fun of driving was perceived to be of low importance/high performance, leading to a possible overkill in this attribute. However, reliability and good mileage was considered to be of high importance/low performance. Super-mini manufacturers should concentrate on improving the performance of these two attributes. Interestingly, no attribute was perceived to be in the high importance or high performance quadrant. This reveals an area for manufacturers to consider for competitive advantage. While the general ability of this research was limited by convenience sampling but the effectiveness of the IPA is highlighted.