SP1 2015
The assignment has three questions.
Question 1
Suppose you are the market analyst of a soft drink company. The company manager has recently looked at the aggregate purchasing data in two periods and found that there is a decline in the sales to the heavy buyer group, from 384 units to 308 units (about 20% decline). She is concerned about this as she thinks that if sales to the heavy buyers keep falling, eventually total sales will also fall since, as she argues, the heavy buyers are those who contribute most to sales. Apply the methods from market analysis to the full data set (data for question 1). Present your findings to the brand manager. Advise her if her concerns are supported by your analysis. What are the managerial implications of the findings?
Question 2
Your company is looking to expand its business in the snack category by taking over an existing brand in this category – which currently has the second largest share in the category. You have been given a data set of 2,000 shoppers, which reports for each shopper his/her purchases of a set of brands over one year (data for question 2). Using the data set discuss and answer the following questions.
(a) Does the brand that your company is interested in have normal loyalty?
(b) Are there niche brands in the market?
(c) When looking to grow the brand, is it more important for the company to focus on selling more to existing customers or attracting new customers?
Question 3
Your company is also looking to branch into the wine category. Your research team has already conducted a Choice-Based-Conjoint study but needs you to do some analysis (data for question 3). Undertake a conjoint analysis, completing all the tasks below.
Calculate the partworths for well-known region, well-known brand and for a $5 increase in price. Convert the partworths to dollar values for a well-known region and a well-known brand. Interpret the results.