Google Trends as a complementary tool for new car sales forecasting : a cross-country comparison along the customer journey, a case for India and South Korea : Master of Business Studies in Marketing at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Abstract

This dissertation aims to evaluate factors responsible for different consumption patterns and customer's preferences for goods and services in India and South Korea. It further analyzes several model frameworks that reflect the different variants of conceptual ideas of different authors. It gives special importance to customer-oriented study with the aim of improving customer-oriented analysis. It also discusses the assessment of economic conditions of India and South Korea as purchasing power of customers is directly proportional to the state of the economy. It further discusses challenges involved in pricing of new car models. The focus is given to quantitative research to evaluate the correlation between the customer preference for a particular model of car and data of new car sales. This purpose is achieved using several linear regression models and cross-sectional studies. It has been observed that seasonality has little impact on car prices in India as per the data retrieved from Google Trend Index but in South Korea seasonality has significant impact on car prices. This dissertation also discusses the significance of Google Trend Index in both the countries. It further provides that use of studies used in this dissertation can serve as a valuable tool for predicting the demand for various car models in both the countries which would not be accurately provided by use of traditional approaches.