Essay Sample on Outdoor Sporting Goods

Every business collects market data which is used to make market decisions by inferring on the trends in the market and the decisions that can benefit the organization. The internet age has played a significant role in improving data collection with the aim of streamlining future business decision making processes. Data collection necessitates the use of statistics to evaluate the collected information and organize it into meaningful information which can be used in decision making. Statistical analysis of data collected by business organizations such as Big D Incorporated helps to create a big picture of the market trends and the performance of the organization products. Besides, the organization can use statistical data evaluation results to support the judgments made and also to assess the different variables within an organization. Chi-square is one of the available statistical data analysis approaches that Big D Incorporated can use to make a comparison between two different parameters such as product lines or markets (Diener-West, 2008). This essay will assess the qualitative and quantitative attributes of outdoor sporting goods that researchers should measure to justify Big D Incorporated's decision on an outdoor sporting good for the retailer client.

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Outdoor sports are activities that take place in out of doors in natural settings and are one of the significant leisure activities that people engage in today. The most common outdoor sporting activities include fishing, hunting, horseback riding, and backpacking (White, Bowker, Askew, Langner, Arnold, & English, 2016). This essay will focus on fishing and sporting goods which have a high number of participants, and the outdoor sports goodcan significantly expand its services and product horizon by proving goods that facilitate the two sports. Boats, fishing equipment, and hunting tools are essential outdoor goods that can be used in fishing and hunting and present a significant outdoor activity business good.

Qualitative Attributes of Outdoor Sporting Goods

The continuous changes in the outdoor recreation business and activities require effective research to identify reliable data that can be used in management decision making. Outdoor recreation is a significant leisure activity participated by many people which makes it essential to research to establish the nature of different products. The qualitative attributes refer to the quality in the form of taste, feeling and aesthetic view of outdoor sporting goods. The qualitative characteristics of outdoor sporting goods can be used in decision making on the most effective outdoor sporting good that a retailer organization can concentrate on which can bring the most significant financial outcomes for the organization. The qualitative attributes of outdoor sporting goods are highly theoretical and do not require any measurements. A retailer choice of outdoor sporting goods plays a significant role in their overall success based on sales. Fishing and hunting outdoor sporting goods vary in terms of demand in the population based on different prevailing factors.

Types of Sports

Types of outdoor sporting goods are one of the qualitative attributes which can be identified and used as a research item in consideration of the goods that the retailer will have in its stored. The different types of outdoor activities require different gears and equipment and the kind of sport that has the most participants is the most lucrative and the one with the highest profit potential. Between fishing and hunting outdoor goods the retailer qualitative research can establish the most preferred outdoor sporting and accompanying goods used to facilitate the sports. For instance, revelers can prefer imported hunting or fishing outdoor goods due to the local assumption perception that the imported outdoor products are of superior quality. In this case, using an ordinal approach to establish the most preferred type of sport can be used to inform the retailer of the kind of goods to offer. For instance, an ordinal preference of 4 for fishing gear and 5 for hunting gear shows that the latter is the more preferred type of outdoor sport compared to fishing which means that hunting outdoor equipment will be more attractive for the retailer to sell.

Customer Needs

Customer needs in the choice of outdoor goods will differ significantly from one customer to another. As a qualitative attribute, customer needs can be used to understand the value of different potential retailer products. Customer needs in outdoor goods can vary due to the different preferences with some customer preferring beauty, durability or safety attributes within the outdoor good in question. For instance, different companies offering hunting gear can center their product strength on aesthetic aspects such as beautiful designs while another company offers goods with greater safety and durability attributes. As such, being aware of the customer needs can help the retailer to stock goods that have actual demand and are attractive to the customers. In this case, research is key towards establishing the different attributes within a product. The beauty attributes of the products have a nominal value because they cannot be given mathematical amount whereas the durability and safety aspect of outdoor sporting goods can be ordinal by having different quantitative elements. For instance, the durability of hunting gear products from two manufacturers can be given different durability standard using a rating system. Hunting equipment rated 4-5 indicates that they are highly durable and safe whereas those rated below 4 indicate that they are of below par quality and should not be considered by the retailer if the consumer need for safety and durability is high.

Brands

The third qualitative attribute of outdoor goods is the brand which helps to identify between different hunting or fishing gear products. For the retailers, the choice of the brand to sell its products to the fishing and hunting enthusiasts can significantly influence the overall quantity of sales and competitive advantage. Based on one reason or another the customer preference for brands especially in outdoor goods vary considerably which has the potential of affecting the sales volume for the retailer. Brands qualitative attribute has an ordinal data characteristic because they can be viewed from a qualitative or quantities aspect. The retailer should seek to establish different brands that meet specific customer preferences in terms of quality, cost, and aesthetic purposes. In terms of quality, it takes a nominal value because they can be categorized as good quality, budget quality or poor quality goods. In terms of cost, outdoor products take ordinal data because the brands can be classified in both qualitative and quantitative measures. The qualitative aspect is the expensive or affordable goods whereas the quantitative aspect is the demand of the different brands depending on cost which can vary from one outdoor good to another. In this case, the preference for expensive and quality outdoor gears can be rated as 5 overall whereas for the individual quality and costly products scores below 4. This means that consumers are seeking quality when buying hunting or fishing gear and the cost does not affect the demand for such products. Therefore, the retailer should attempt to balance both the quality and the price of outdoor goods to be able to attract more customers to buy their products.

Difference between Ordinal and Nominal Data

Data is considered to be nominal when the values or observations made can be given codes or numbers where the numbers are mere labels for the observed attributes. For instance, when 0 is used as a code number for male consumers. On the other hand, ordinal data refer to the values that can be ranked using a rating scale. In this case, ordinal data can be counted such as the customer satisfaction level (Velleman & Wilkinson, 1993). A rating scale is an excellent approach to present ordinal data whereas in nominal data labels are used for data which makes the rating scale not appropriate.

Quantitative Attributes

The quantitative attributes are numerical, and the retailer can consider elements such as the number of people participating in specific outdoor activity concerning the other. For instance, 1000 people engage in hunting outdoor sports every year whereas only 500 participate in fishing as an outdoor sporting activity. Using such numerical attributes, the retailer can easily assess demand by relating the number of participants to the respective outdoor goods demand. In such a case, the retailer will choose to sell more hunting outdoor goods compared to the outdoor fishing goods because the higher the number of participants in an outdoor activity the higher the sales. The second quantitative attribute can be the brand name with the highest demand based on the total amount demanded within a specific period.

Interval and Ratio Data Difference

The interval data refers to the difference between two variables such as the difference in the number of participants in an outdoor sporting activity between two events such as fishing and hunting (Velleman & Wilkinson, 1993). On the other hand, the ratio data refer to the properties of an interval variable such as the duration of an event, safety of equipment and cost of different equipment's can be expressed in the form of ratio variable. Interval data and ratio data can significantly help the retailer where there is a need to compare two types of outdoor activities and their accompanying equipment.

Population and Sample

The population is an entire defined group that is under study, in this case, the people engaging in fishing and hunting outdoor sports (Hanlon & Larget, 2011). However, a part of the population can be defined as a sample and involved a narrowed down population that targets a more specific group within a population. The entire United States can be a population which includes all potential consumers. However, areas that are known for hunting outdoor sports the population within can be narrowed down into samples of people using certain equipment to carry out fishing or hunting outdoor activities (Hanlon & Larget, 2011). A sample can be narrowed down into a target market based on the prevailing factors that facilitate a certain geographical area and people with the unique behavioral market where a particular product can be sold. For instance, outdoor activity lovers are the target market for the retailer seeking to sell fishing and hunting outdoor sports goods that facilitate the activities.

Chi-Square Test Application

Statistical methods such as Chi-square are used in research extensively and are essential in the organization, collection, analysis and the interpretation of data which is expressed in numeric terms to help in the formulation of generalizations within the business environment and help the managers to derive conclusions (Diener-West, 2008). The statistical methods such as Chi-square can clarify, measure and verify relationships such as new and existing product line which makes it easy for the bond to create or support their decisions. Statistical data analysis can be descriptive which involve graphing, tabulating and describing the data using variability, measures of central tendency or relations and inferential statistics (Onchiri, 2013).