Eras end. Driven by changing tastes and the aging of customers, Cadillac will stop making and selling the big DTS sedan (the modern-day version of the Sedan DeVille) at the end of the 2011 model year. Lexus, Audi and BMW. It's easy for Boomers to ignore and even ridicule the DTS, a car you're most likely to find in retirement communities, parking lots of restaurants serving the Early Bird special dinners and the occasional rental fleet. But it's also wrong. 3500 less than the BMW 335is coupe. Apples and oranges, you say? You're right. Let's put the DTS against the least-expensive big Bimmer, the 740i sedan. 24,000 less. It has more room, costs less to insure, maintain and license and the highway fuel economy difference (23 mpg for the Cadillac, 25 for the BMW) is negligible. So what's it like to drive? I hadn't had the opportunity in 7 years (even GM's press fleet folks have been treating the DTS like a stepchild), so I rounded one up for a week. No, it's not meant for blasting through winding mountain roads (newsflash: neither is any Lexus save the IS-F). What it is is quiet, smooth, responsive, and, given its size and lack of cutting-edge handling hardware, remarkably agile. 65K for Escalades but wouldn't give a DTS the time of day would think they're driving a sport sedan by comparison. They'd also find they and their passengers are as or more comfortable and they could make a nice dent in the power bill with the money they save on gasoline. Something I learned programming popular music radio back in the day: There is such a thing as out-hipping yourself, walking away from things of value to a mass audience in the pursuit of image. A week in the DTS has me strongly suspecting that we'll miss it once it's gone.
For this study data was extracted from a large, commercial database: BMRB/TGI which is compiled from an annual consumer survey based on straified sampling using self completion postal questionnaires which are distributed to 40,000 households to generate 25,000 usable responses. The BMRB/TGI contingency tables contain aggregated categorical data. The formation of the consumption combinations: constellations, anti constellations and configurations, was seen as determined by the interaction of three forces: symbolic-functional, physiological-esteem-self actualization, and expressive-instrumental. 146;), and health and diet (which were linked to sports and keep fit equipment). The most important new addition to the product/service components in this model building was represented by the inclusion of retailers as a separate and identifiable category. Data was extracted from the BMRB/TGI database on users of eight mail order catalogue titles (representing the eight major U.K. The data matrix for the study consisted of over two thousand rows by eight columns. Correspondence analysis was used to identify potential groups and subgroups among the users of U.K. The relationship between the mail order catalogues (the column profiles) and the dimensions can be seen from Table 2. Inertia indicates how well each column or row is represented by a particular dimension.
The inertias for the seven dimensions produced by correspondence analysis of the BMRB/TGI data are shown in Table 3. Over 60% of the inertia is represented by the plot of first two axes. A two stage procedure was adopted in constructing and interpreting the constellations. The tables of transition formulae were examined to identify constellations amongst the row profiles from which to elicit product constellations and anti constellations. 146; which were relevant to the users of the catalogue which could be linked to that dimension or axis. 146; should be, particularly in the absence of any preceding research using correspondence analysis for identifying combinations in the data set. Table 3 had shown that nearly 61% of the inertia in the data had been accounted for on the first two axes, and that the remaining 40% inertia had been accounted for by the remaining five dimensions. 146; of categories by groups of shoppers, and some of this information was extracted from the BMRB/TGI database and was included in the correspondence analysis of the cross tabulated data.
Implicit non consumption could be constructed from the absence of specific categories from the constellations. The second stage of this procedure, the interpretation of the constellations, anti constellations and configurations was undertaken within the framework of the model building of the forces which influence intermediate patterns of joint consumption. It was expected that different product constellations and anti constellations would be found and these consumption combinations would reflect the differing responses amongst consumers to the various forces which influence decisions on consumption. 146; configurations of consumption would also be influenced by their needs (physiological-esteem-self actualization) which would be reflected in the consumer choices. Certain product fields could be associated with the consumption combinations and could therefore be taken as proxies of consumer behaviour. Correspondence analysis of the behavioural data showed that constellations and anti-constellations of consumption could be identified from which consumption configurations could be derived. These consumption configurations could be linked with three different groups of users of mail order catalogues: two groups were associated with focused catalogue offerings, and one group with the mass market mail order catalogue offering.
It was possible to associate combinations of product and service usage and non usage with distinct groups within the mail order shopping population. For the purposes of this paper, only the three main groupings will be reported. The first important consumption constellation could be associated with Next Directory shoppers(an up market niche catalogue). The consumption configurations on the remaining dimensions could be associated with the six mass market catalogues, and were representative of a series of subgroups within this mass market group of catalogue shoppers. For the purposes of illustration the details for one of the major catalogue in this mass market group, Kays, will be described. Table 5 indicates the presence of the product categories in the various consumption constellations and confirmed earlier research about the importance of clothing, electronic goods and cars as important distinguishing characteristics of consumption combinations. Discretionary time and retailers also emerged as important distinguishing characteristics of consumption choices. From the consideration of the COR figures for the row points it was clear that some of the product category items overlapped the various dimensions (e.g. some of the cars and some of the branding clothing products).
