Posted: April 7th, 2015

Faculty of Business, Environment and Society

Faculty of Business, Environment and Society

Assignment Brief

Module learning outcomes being assessed
1. Analyse realistic management problems based on analysis of data sets and case materials.

2. Apply the techniques studied to interpret and communicate findings on data analysis.

Assignment Information

This assignment requires you to complete and submit as an excel file, a portfolio containing the tasks outlined in the brief below:

107SAM Coursework 2 (Portfolio)
Semester 2

Your portfolio consists of the following four tasks based on Choc Deluxe case study and data supplied in moodle. A significant part of similar tasks will be performed in seminars with the tutors’ guidance. However, some parts of these tasks will require independent study. The final portfolio will have to be submitted on the designated section of the module’s Moodle page AS A SINGLE EXCEL FILE containing all four tasks.

The Case Study and Portfolio Tasks
Choc Deluxe is a chocolate and bakery company based in the UK. They have been operating very successfully in the snacks industry for many years. Catering for consumers’ needs and demand is the key to their success and sustainability.  They collect consumer data on a regular basis and analyse them to identify the growing trend in snacks consumption.

Recently they have identified that the British population is increasingly choosing healthier snacks with low sugar content. They also established that this is strongly correlated with Olympic spirit. To exploit this new trend Choc Deluxe is planning to launch a new product after the Sochi winter Olympic events. Choc Deluxe’s innovation and product design team planned to market a chocolate bar for keeping weight under control, with average calories of 191 per unit.

Choc Deluxe has hired you for the analytical insights. Your job is to collate and analyse a range of data to recommend a competitive product for the healthy snack market. See Excel file “CW2 Raw Data.xls” for raw data.

Task 1: (30 Marks)
Using the food table in the dataset, prepare a list of alternative snacks – i.e. the direct competitors to the new product. You are required to:

1.    Divide them in categories – for example chocolate based snacks, bakery, processed food, fast food, healthier snacks etc. 6 marks
2.    List them in tables. 6 marks
3.    Prepare appropriate graphs for displaying comparing calories. 6 marks
4.    Calculate the mean, median and standard deviations of their calories.  6 marks
5.    What advice would you give for weight-loss purposes – which snacks have to be chosen? Is the chocolate bar going to be competitive in the market? 6 marks

Task 2: (30 Marks)
Using the attached sugar content data and internet sources, try to determine the average content of sugar of the items in the chocolate bar categories you have selected that are on the sugar data, and list them in a new column near the calories. After that, you will have to:

1.    Construct the right graphs for the new variables, sugar. 8 marks
2.    Calculate the mean and median of the new variable, and their standard deviations.
8 marks
3.    Generate the scatterplot and calculate the Pearson’s coefficient for the two variables (calories and sugar) for single items and for snacks category. 8 marks
4.    Provide comments about the results (hint: it is about the correlation). 6 marks

Task 3 (24 Marks)

Choc Deluxe is now interested in trying to estimate how sales are influenced by the price of their products. To do this, the company randomly chooses 6 UK cities and offers the candy bar at different prices and run a regression analysis on price and sales data.

City        Price (£)    Sales
London    1.20    100
Birmingham    2.60    90
Manchester    2.70    90
Edinburgh    3.80    40
Glasgow    3.90    38
Cardiff    3.95    32
Belfast             4.40            20

1.    Using sales as the dependent variable, construct a linear regression model. 8 marks
2.    Write the regression equation using the results of the excel table. 4 marks
3.    Determine the slope and the intercept. 4 marks
4.    Determine what percentage of the total variation in candy bar sales is explained by prices? 4 marks
5.    Generate the scatterplot. 4 marks

[Perform, using Excel, Data Analysis Pack, Regression function, the regression analysis.]

Task 4 (16 Marks)

Write a summary report based on the results of the three exercises.

Guidelines for completing task:

You are to follow the procedures, techniques and Excel based & long hand formula taught in seminars to answer questions related to categorising, tabling, central tendency, variance and regression analysis calculations. You will also need to perform web-based research to identify sugar content of chocolate based snacks item. Theories delivered in lectures will help you to answer descriptive questions. If you need further support please contact your seminar tutors.

GUIDELINES AND BACKGROUND TO THIS ASSIGNMENT

This assessment will assess the module learning outcomes 2 and 3 and makes up 50% of the overall module mark.

Word Count Limit

Your word count includes in text citations but not the final references or appendices. If you are more than 10% over or under the word count limit you may lose marks as a 10% penalty applies.

The contents of your References and Appendices are not normally given a specific mark (though they may contribute to your overall mark, as detailed in the assessment criteria). We therefore recommend that you only use Appendices for supporting material and not for the substantive part of your work.

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