TMA 02 Scenario
Maria is an entrepreneur and the owner of a chain of sustainable product stores. She is looking to expand her business by launching a new product line targeting environmentally conscious consumers.
Maria has gathered various data sets and seeks expert advice on how to use them effectively to make informed decisions.
You will take on the role of a consultant tasked with helping Maria interpret the data, identify actionable insights and make strategic recommendations.
Question 1 (20 marks)
How can Maria leverage the five V’s of big data to understand her customer base and market trends, and what recommendations would you make based on a real-world example of successful big data implementation in business?
Your answer to Question 1 should be no more than 400 words.
Read the guidance notes for Question 1 before preparing your answer.
Question 2 (20 marks)
To support Maria’s analysis, you are considering two probability distributions: the standard normal distribution and the distribution. Describe their key characteristics.
Your answer to Question 2 should be no more than 400 words.
Read the guidance notes for Question 2 before preparing your answer.
Question 3 (20 marks)
Maria is evaluating a £3,000 advertising campaign with three potential outcomes:
- small success (10% probability)
- moderate success (70% probability)
- high success (20% probability).
For a small success, there is an 80% chance of a profit increase by £800 and a 20% chance of an increase by £3,000. Moderately successful campaigns have a 40% chance of a £6,000 profit increase and a 60% chance of a £3,000 increase. Highly successful campaigns have a 60% chance of a £6,000 profit increase and a 40% chance of a £3,000 increase.
Using decision tree analysis, can you help Maria determine whether she should proceed with the advertising campaign by calculating the expected value? For simplicity, assume that profits are non-taxable.
Your answer to Question 3 is computational, and no word limit is imposed here.
Read the guidance notes for Question 3 before preparing your answer.
Question 4 (20 marks)
Maria has launched two product lines, ‘Product A’ and ‘Product B’, in her stores and needs to evaluate their performance for strategic decision making.
Use the spreadsheet that contains the data for Product A and Product B  (available under the ‘Assessment’ tab on the module website) and conduct hypothesis tests (α = 0.05) to:
- Determine if Product A’s average customer satisfaction score exceeds the 6.5 benchmark (given population standard deviation of Product A = 1.5)
- Understand if there is a statistically significant difference in customer satisfaction between Product A and Product B to refine Maria’s marketing strategy.
Your answer to Question 4 is computational, and no word limit is imposed here.
Read the guidance notes for Question 4 before preparing your answer.
Question 5 (20 marks)
Use the spreadsheet that contains the data for Product A and Product B  (available under the ‘Assessment’ tab on the module website) and help Maria evaluate her product expansion decision by analysing Product B’s customer satisfaction scores against the market benchmark of 6.5 (α = 0.05), which she believes her product significantly exceeds. Specifically:
- Discuss the potential impact of Type I and Type II errors in this context
- Calculate and interpret the effect size to determine if it supports Maria’s belief.
Based on your findings, provide recommendations for Maria’s product expansion decision.
Your answer to Question 5 should be no more than 300 words.
Read the guidance notes for Question 5 before preparing your answer.
Guidance Notes
Before you start work on the assignment questions, you will need to download and save the spreadsheet with Product A and Product B data. This is available under the ‘Assessment’ tab on the module website.
You will need to produce all your calculations and charts using Excel and submit this spreadsheet with your Word document through the online TMA/EMA service. Marks will be awarded for using the correct formulas.
To submit two files, you will need to zip them together. For guidance on zipping your files, see Zipping (combining and compressing) your files in the Help Centre.
All references to the module materials should be included in a separate section of your Word document called ‘References’ at the end of the TMA. You do not need to refer to external sources to complete this assignment, but if you do, you should include these sources in your reference list. For information on referencing, see the Assessment Guide