Suppose you were in charge of advertising for an automotive dealership when the gas prices increased to $4 per gallon. Most of your cars are fuel-efficient, but you have two models that have extremely poor fuel economy, that is, a low number of miles per gallon. How would you use a measure of central tendency in your advertising to present your product line in the best light? Why would you choose this measure of central tendency? What circumstances would make you choose an alternative measure? Specify the circumstances and the measure you would use.

Question

Suppose you were in charge of advertising for an automotive dealership when the gas prices increased to $4 per gallon. Most of your cars are fuel-efficient, but you have two models that have extremely poor fuel economy, that is, a low number of miles per gallon. How would you use a measure of central tendency in your advertising to present your product line in the best light? Why would you choose this measure of central tendency? What circumstances would make you choose an alternative measure? Specify the circumstances and the measure you would use.

Answer 1

To present your product line in the best light in the face of increased gas prices, you would want to emphasize the fuel efficiency of most of your cars. Using a measure of central tendency, such as the mean, median, or mode, can help you highlight the overall fuel efficiency of your product line.

If you choose to use the mean, you would calculate the average fuel economy of all the cars in your product line. This would provide a general representation of the fuel efficiency across the entire range of cars. By showcasing a high mean fuel economy, you can create the impression that most of your cars are fuel-efficient.

However, be cautious with using the mean in this situation, as it can be affected by extreme values. Since you mentioned that you have two models with extremely poor fuel economy, it might skew the mean towards the lower end, which could misrepresent the overall fuel efficiency of your product line. In such cases, an alternative measure of central tendency, like the median, can offer a more accurate representation.

The median represents the middle value when the data is arranged in ascending or descending order. In this scenario, if you arrange the fuel economy of all your cars, the median would be the value that falls right in the middle. By using the median, you can show that at least half of your cars have a better fuel economy than the median value and yet highlight the fuel efficiency of most of your cars.

Overall, both the mean and median can effectively showcase the fuel efficiency of your product line. However, in situations where there are extreme values that might skew the data, using the median as a measure of central tendency could be a more appropriate choice.

Note: The mode, which represents the most frequently occurring value, might not be the best measure of central tendency in this scenario, as it might not accurately reflect the fuel efficiency of most of your cars.