Data Analysis And Business Analytics

Assignment 1 _ Statistical Report

Resources: Pastas R Us, Inc. Database & Microsoft Excel®, attached

Purpose 

This assignment is intended to help you learn how to apply statistical methods when analyzing operational data, evaluating the performance of current marketing strategies, and recommending actionable business decisions. This is an opportunity to build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills within the context of data analysis and interpretation. You’ll gain a first-hand understanding of how data analytics supports decision-making and adds value to an organization.

 

Scenario: 

Pastas R Us, Inc. is a fast-casual restaurant chain specializing in noodle-based dishes, soups, and salads. Since its inception, the business development team has favored opening new restaurants in areas (within a 3-mile radius) that satisfy the following demographic conditions:

· Median age between 25 – 45 years old

· Household median income above national average

· At least 15% college educated adult population

Last year, the marketing department rolled out a Loyalty Card strategy to increase sales. Under this program, customers present their Loyalty Card when paying for their orders and receive some free food after making 10 purchases.

The company has collected data from its 74 restaurants to track important variables such as average sales per customer, year-on-year sales growth, sales per sq. ft., Loyalty Card usage as a percentage of sales, and others. A key metric of financial performance in the restaurant industry is annual sales per sq. ft. For example, if a 1200 sq. ft. restaurant recorded $2 million in sales last year, then it sold $1,667 per sq. ft.

Executive management wants to know whether the current expansion criteria can be improved. They want to evaluate the effectiveness of the Loyalty Card marketing strategy and identify feasible, actionable opportunities for improvement. As a member of the analytics department, you’ve been assigned the responsibility of conducting a thorough statistical analysis of the company’s available database to answer executive management’s questions.

Report:

Write a 750-word statistical report that includes the following sections:

· Section 1: Scope and descriptive statistics

· Section 2: Analysis

· Section 3: Recommendations and Implementation

Section 1 - Scope and descriptive statistics

· State the report’s objective.

· Discuss the nature of the current database. What variables were analyzed?

· Summarize your descriptive statistics findings from Excel. Use a table and insert appropriate graphs.

Section 2 - Analysis 

· Using Excel, create scatter plots and display the regression equations for the following pairs of variables:

· “BachDeg%” versus “Sales/SqFt”

· “MedIncome” versus “Sales/SqFt”

· “MedAge” versus “Sales/SqFt”

· “LoyaltyCard(%)” versus “SalesGrowth(%)”

· In your report, include the scatter plots. For each scatter plot, designate the type of relationship observed (increasing/positive, decreasing/negative, or no relationship) and determine what you can conclude from these relationships.

 

Section 3: Recommendations and implementation

· Based on your findings above, assess which expansion criteria seem to be more effective.Could any expansion criterion be changed or eliminated? If so, which one and why?

· Based on your findings above, does it appear as if the Loyalty Card is positively correlated with sales growth? Would you recommend changing this marketing strategy?

· Based on your previous findings, recommend marketing positioning that targets a specific demographic. (Hint: Are younger people patronizing the restaurants more than older people?)

· Indicate what information should be collected to track and evaluate the effectiveness of your recommendations. How can this data be collected? (Hint: Would you use survey/samples or census?)

 

Cite references to support your assignment.

 

Format your citations according to APA guidelines.

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Assignment 2 - Market Analysis Research

Purpose

MBA Business Plan component

Context

One of the most important elements in a business plan is the market analysis. A market analysis is a qualitative and quantitative assessment of a market. It includes data collection and estimation in reference to the market size and value; characteristics of the intended customer base; in-depth understanding of the competition; barriers to entry and the regulatory environment. An accurate and detailed market analysis allows entrepreneurs to determine whether the market is sufficiently large to build a sustainable, profitable business. In this assignment, you will prepare a portion of the market analysis for your proposed business. You will create a report that can be included as part of your digital portfolio.

Instructions

Write a 525-word report that includes the following sections:

· Section 1: Business overview, mission and vision

· Section 2: Market analysis

· Section 3: Recommendation

Please follow the Market Analysis Research document for details on what to include in each section. The document is below:

GUIDELINES - Wk 3 Market Analysis Research Document 1 - Business overview, mission and vision 

Describe the proposed business. Address the following in your summary:

· What type of product/service will it offer?

· What is the intended market?

· What is the business model? 

Articulate the business’s mission and vision statements. 

 Section 2 - Market analysis  

Based on your intended product or service, describe the characteristics of your customer base.  

 

Investigate and list your current competitors. For example, if you’re manufacturing and selling exercise equipment, current competitors would be companies like NordicTrack or Nautilus, Inc. To simplify the process, limit yourself to businesses you are competing directly against. If your business is a local bistro, then your competitors are other local similar restaurants. 

 

Research and estimate the size of your intended market. Market size is the number of potential customers or unit sales for your products/services. Consider the nature of your business when researching market size. For instance, if your business is a local bistro, then your market size is determined by the population within a reasonable radius of the restaurant, say, 5-15 miles maximum. On the other hand, if your business intends to sell a low-weight mountain bicycle online, then the market size is the average number of low-weight Mountain bicycles sold nationwide annually. 

  

Estimate the value of your market. Market value is the potential revenues the market has to offer. For instance, suppose low-weight mountain bicycles have a market size of 300,000 units a year with a $500 average price. Then the market value would be $150,000,000.

It can be difficult to estimate market value as you must make assumptions related to market size and average unit price. Use the expected value concept introduced in Chapter 6 of the textbook and the chart below to do the estimation.  

Expected Market Value: Mountain Bicycle Scenario
Assumptions	Probability p(x)	Units ('000)	Avg. Unit Price ($)	Market Value ('$000)
Pessimistic	0.30	200	450	90,000
Most Likely	0.50	300	500	150,000
Optimistic	0.20	375	550	206,250
Expected Market Value ('$000)				102,110

Estimate the total addressable market or TAM. This is the fraction of the total market you realistically estimate to get. Most businesses have a relatively modest market share, well under 20%. For example, if we expect to get a 5% share of the mountain bicycle market, then our TAM would be: 0.05 * $102,110,000 = $5,105,500 or approximately $5.1 million. 

on 3: Recommendation 

Based on the information collected, do you feel it is a good idea to continue with the implementation of the business? Explain why or why not.

Cite references to support your assignment.

 

Format your citations according to APA guidelines.