Businesses such as General Mills, Kellogg’s, and Betty Crocker regularly use coupons to build brand allegiance and stimulate sales. Marketers believe that the users of paper coupons are different from the users of e-coupons accessed through the Internet. One survey recorded the age of each person who redeemed a coupon along with the type of coupon (either paper or electronic). The sample of 25 traditional paper-coupon clippers had a mean age of 39.5 with a standard deviation of 4.8. The sample of 35 e-coupon users had a mean age of 33.6 years with a standard deviation of 10.9. Assume the population standard deviations are not the same. Using a significance level of .01, test the hypothesis of no difference in the mean ages of the two groups of coupon clients.

a. What are the null and alternate hypotheses?

b. Compute the test statistic.

c. Compute the p-value.

d. What is your decision regarding the null hypothesis?

e. Interpret the result.