management assignment

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Assignment 2: Wegmans Survey Analysis (Individual/Pair)

Due Friday Oct. 27, before class.

Instructions

You should use the National Insurance Case Excel file and the relevant lecture slides as a guide for how

to do the analyses and interpret your results. For each question below, you must (1) identify an

appropriate analysis, (2) run the analysis (using the output to construct a table/figure that depicts the

results in a managerially relevant and statistically accurate way), and (3) identify the key insights,

indicating these clearly on the slide(s). Also be sure on the slides to provide (in brief text notes)

statements that clarify what was done. Follow the example slides provided in lectures to get a sense of

the direction. Below I have indicated the recommended minimum number of slides for each question.

Be sure not to go beyond 7 total slides (not including the title slide).

Background

Survey Method and Sample Overview

The Wegmans survey was sent to a web panel of customers. The panel is voluntary, but for this survey,

they were offered a chance to win a $100 Wegmans shopping card. In general, the panel is a passionate

group interested in expressing opinions to the company.

The survey was only sent to individuals that had previously purchased Greek Yogurt and were screened

during the survey based on a question about purchase of Greek Yogurt. Thus, the sample is not a general

sample of Wegmans customers, but instead a sample of current buyers of Greek Yogurt. Wegmans

considered this the most relevant population for this survey.

Overall Research Goal

The purpose of this analysis is to understand category behaviors in the Greek Yogurt subcategory. This

subcategory at the time of this survey was growing dramatically. Understanding different segments,

usage situations, attribute importance, and brand perceptions is critical to determining the best

approach to promote the sale of this growing category in the Wegmans stores. Below are questions to

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guide you in this analysis. Ultimately, you should deliver a presentation that captures the key insights as

well as the detailed analyses below.

Audience

The main audience for this analysis is managers, but some of the managers are well-trained in statistics

and have been known to ask whether numbers are really different or not based on statistical tests or

confidence intervals. Hence, while some of the audience is quite comfortable with numbers and

statistics and will want some detail along these lines, others are less so and will want to be able to glean

the insights easily without needing to fully comprehend all of the statistical analysis.

Assignment Questions

1. Depict the portion of the sample that is female vs. male. Use an appropriate test to examine whether

this distribution differs from the population Wegmans wishes to generalize these results to. In the

desired population, females make up 87%. Does this sample differ from the population in terms of

gender distribution? (1 slide)

2. Conduct descriptive analysis on the average importance ratings (Q6). Provide any managerially

relevant conclusions. Use “Greek Yogurt Survey-Descriptives & Categories_Students” file to help you

determine the category associated with each score (categories from left to right are coded into 1 to 5,

respectively). (1 slide)

3. Examine the text answers to the opening ended questions for selecting a particular brand of Greek

Yogurt (Q17-19). Provide any managerially relevant points. Method: create a Wordle or similar figure

and get a sense of things. Hint: Copy and Paste the 3 variable columns from the data view to Word.

Then select all of this text (use control + A) and change the font to All CAPS. Open a browser to

www.wordle.net and click on Create. Copy all of the CAPS text and paste it into the provided box and

click go. You can play with the layout and colors using the menus at the top of the Wordle. You could

look for common misspellings of words to make sure the meaning is grouped in the counts, but this is

not required. Note you will either need to save it as PNG or use screenshot to copy it. (1 slide)

4. Compare the brand attribute ratings for Fage (Q24) versus Oikos (Q30) given by those who purchased

any Greek yogurt product in the past month. Do these brands differ from one another on perceptions of

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(1) All natural, (2) Price, and (3) Taste? Provide any managerially relevant conclusions. Again, the answer

categories from left to right are coded into 1 to 6, respectively. (1 slide)

5. Greek yogurt has at least two distinct usage situations‐‐as a snack and as an ingredient in cooking. Do people who use Greek yogurt for cooking rate higher the importance of all natural/organic/rbst free (compared to people not using Greek yogurt for cooking)? Do they think price is more (or less) important? What does this suggest about this segment and possible strategies for this segment? Be sure to include any managerially relevant points. (1 slide)

Presentation Layout

You should develop a presentation with the following required slides:

1) Title slide

2) 5-7 detail slides of detailed analyses as described above.

3) Appendix separator slide

4) Any appendix slides with further details you want to provide. These will not be graded, but can serve

as a useful backup in case your team is asked questions about any details behind your main slides during

presentation.

Grading

You will be graded on the following dimensions based on the 5-7 detail slides:

1) Analyses:

Did you select appropriate descriptive statistics / statistical tests (if any) for each analysis?

Did you obtain the correct numbers (i.e., apply it correctly)?

Did you interpret the tests correctly (i.e., significant or not, if significant, interpret the direction)?

Did you translate the statistical findings into managerially relevant insights?

2) Communication:

Can I understand your slides easily without you presenting them?

Are insights easy to locate on each slide?

Are the tables/figures easily understood without explanation?

Are the sources and inputs to figures clear and correct?

Is the language and level of detail appropriate for the intended audience?