The impact of gender on car buyer satisfaction and loyalty

Abstract

Women are becoming an increasing force in the car buyer market. Their pattern of car buying differs from that of men, and thus it is proposed that women's expectations of a car, and hence the determinants of satisfaction with car purchase, would differ from those of men. Consumer data, gathered from both male and female car buyers, is analysed, with the aim of investigating in detail the contribution of explanatory variables to degree of satisfaction with last car bought and brand loyalty relating to car purchase. A neural network is used for the analysis, with hidden layer nodes being labelled to represent respondents' less easily articulated attitudes or beliefs. The findings indeed reveal clear differences in attitudes between male and female buyers.