An investigation into the under-filling of tuna cans and the demand for a new product

September 2, 2017Uncategorized

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Due Dates:

· Your sample of 100 (Excel file) to be submitted through Turn it in by end of Week 3. (Only one student per group is to submit the assignment through Turnitin but make sure your file name has the Student ID numbers of each member in your group)

· Your Report (word file) to be submitted through Turn it in by end of Week 10. In addition to this, a hard copy (printed copy) of your report is to be submitted to your teacher. (Once again only one submission per group)

This assignment focusses on assessing the quality of your learning and it application in real world business research at an introductory level. This assignment requires you to apply the analytical technique taught in this subject to data collected through a survey.

Assignment Title:

An investigation into the under-filling of tuna cans and the demand for a new product

Cans are airtight containers which preserve processed food. These are mostly easy to cook food items with extended shelf life and can be conveniently stored under a variety of conditions. The global demand for these products is on the rise for a variety of reasons. One issue that gets attention in the media every now and then is under-weighting or under-filling of the product cans. Underweighting or under-filling refers to the fact that the net weight of contents in the cans turns out to be less than the one specified on the label.

This assignment creates a hypothetical scenario where a consumer interest group decides to investigate this issue in Australia for tuna cans. The group hired some student volunteers from BUS1BAN classes to collect the data. The interest group also managed to get a small market research project from a potential producer of a new variety of canned tuna (interested in quantifying the demand for the new variety) who agreed to pay students a lump sum amount for their effort.

As part of the agreement, the students set up a stall in the Northland shopping centre for a period of two months to collect the data required for this analysis. The students would ask shoppers to check the weight of their tuna cans and taste the new variety of tuna. Let us refer to this as

New-Taste Tuna (NT Tuna in short).

For simplicity let us assume that (i) there are two brands of tuna cans in the market, called

Brand A and Brand B, (ii) both brands are sold in standard cans that are supposed to weigh 100gm and (iii) both types of cans have the same price per 100gm.

The students at the Northland shopping centre

(i) Registered the type of Tuna can purchased by participants

(ii) Weighed the tuna cans and

(a) registered its weight

(b) reported whether or not it was under-filled (Note that students were advised that regulations allow a less than 2% difference in individual cans weight which means a can will be classified as under-filled if it weighted less than or equal to 98 grams.

(iii) Participants were requested to taste the NT tuna, cooked on the spot, and answer “Yes” or “No” to the following questions:

Will you purchase the NT tuna, instead of the brand you have purchased, if it was available in the market at:

a. 0% discount: the same price as the tuna cans they have purchased,

b. 5% discount: 5% cheaper than the tuna can they have purchased,

c. 10% discount: 10% cheaper than the tuna can they have purchased,

d. 15% discount: 15% cheaper than the tuna can they have purchased,

e. 20% discount: 20% cheaper than the tuna can they have purchased,

f. 25% discount: 25% cheaper than the tuna can they have purchased

A total of 645 customers participated in the survey. The data is provided to you in the excel spreadsheet. (Note: This is a hypothetical scenario ad the data was generated by the subject coordinator for the purpose of this assignment and does not represent actual responses). The data collected can be found on Moodle in a file called “Data for the Assignment”

What should you do?

1. Form a group of 3 students for the assignment. Only one assignment is to be submitted per group. All group members must be from the same BAN class. Make sure you form your group straight away once the assignment is uploaded and register your group members with your teacher by your last class in Week 4

2. Select a random sample of 100 for analysis. Randomly select the responses of 100 participants. You will find the 645 responses in the Excel file called “Data for the Assignment”. The Excel file provides further details about the sample selection process.

3. Submit your random sample of 100 as an Excel file through Turnit in on Moodle by end of Week 3… The sample you submit will be used to double check your calculations in the report. This is where you will have to submit details of your group members as well.

4. Submit a written report (word file) through Turnit in on Moodle by end of Week 10. The report must respond to the specific questions asked in a report format. Use the file called “Tuna Report Format” to insert your answers to the questions and then upload this file. Ensure that the cover page includes names and ID numbers of each student in your group as well as the student contribution mark for each student along the signature of each student.

In addition, submit a hard copy of your report (printed copy) to your teacher.

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REPORT FORMAT

The survey can be used to answer many interesting questions but for this assignment you are required to focus on the specific questions listed below.

Your report must follow the format below.

· You MUST use the word document (which will be provided to you on Moodle as a separate file) to insert your answers.

Cover Page

An investigation into the under-filling of tuna cans and the demand for a new product

Teacher’s Name: _________________________________

Classs (e.g. Class 3) :_________________________________

Student No	Name	Student contribution* (%)	Student Signature

*We expect all group members to exert an equal amount of effort on all questions of the assignment. Students are not allowed to divide sections.

If a student has contributed to only some sections, the contribution of the student should be equal to the marks it carries. A student with less than 100% contribution will receive marks proportional to their contribution.

YOU MUST ATTACH a signed copy of this cover sheet to the assignment complete with each student’s contribution to the assignment.

I. Introduction: (5 marks)

Provide a brief introduction to what this assignment is about and how your sample was selected?

II. Data Analysis (80 marks):

This section must answer the following specific questions

Section A: Basic Analysis (30 marks)

1. Brand demand:

A. Calculate the proportion of customers who purchased brand A and brand B. Report your results in the following table.

Brand	Sample proportion
A
B

B. Use an appropriate chart to graphically display Information in the table above and summarize your conclusions on brand popularity. (Which brand is the most popular?)

2. Weights of Tuna cans by brand:

A. Complete the following table

	Brand A	Brand B
Minimum weight
Maximum weight
Range
Average weight
Standard deviation

B. Compare the average weight and spread of weights by brand.

3. Frequency distribution:

A. Complete the following frequency distribution table for each brand weight of cans.

Class	Frequency		Relative Frequency (%)		Cumulative Relative Frequency (%)
	A	B	A	B	A	B
86 to 90
90 to 94
94 to 98
98 to 102
102 to 106
106 to 110
More than 110
Total

B. Use appropriate charts to plot the relative frequency distribution and cumulative relative frequency distribution table.

C. What proportion of each brand of cans is under-filled? Recall “under-filling” means the can is under-filled by 2 or more than 2 grams? (i.e. the can contains 2 or more than 2 grams less than what is specified on the label).

4. Under-filled or not?

A. Complete the following cross classification table

Cross classification table by frequency

		Underweight?		Total
		Yes	No	Total
Brand	A
Brand	B
Total

Cross classification table by brand total relative frequency

		Underweight?		Total
		Yes	No	Total
Brand	A
Brand	B
Total

B. Use an appropriate chart to graphically display the above table.

Is the under-filling behaviour of brand A’s producer any different from that of brand B’s producer?

Section B: Intermediate level Analysis (20 marks)

5. Potential Demand for NT Tuna

A. Complete the following table

Discount offered	Proportion of ALL customers who said they will buy the new product
x	y
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%

B. Using Excel, (i) construct a scatter plot of the discount offered on the new product (NT tuna) and the proportion of customers who said that they will buy the new product if they are offered the stated discount and (ii) fit a “least squares line” using Excel displaying its equation and the value of R-squared.

C. Provide an interpretation of the output (Intercept, slope and R-squared). Is there any relationship between discount offered and potential demand for the NT tuna? If so, explain the type of relationship.

D. What discount should be offered to customers if the producer of the NT tuna product wants to capture 25% of the existing market?

6. Potential Demand for NT Tuna: Market captured by Brand

A. Complete the following table

Discount offered	Proportion of customers who said they will buy the new product
	Brand A	Brand B
x	y_A	y_B
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%

B. Using Excel, construct scatter plots of the discount offered on the new product (NT tuna) and the proportion of each brand’s customers who said that they will buy the new product if they are offered the stated discount.

Which brand’s customers are more loyal to their brand?

C. What proportion of each brand’s market will the NT tuna producer capture if it decides not to give any discount and offer the product at the same price as the other brands?

Section C: Advance scenarios (30 marks)

7. Suppose, you randomly selected a customer. How likely is it that the customer will purchase

i. brand A

ii. brand B

Provide 95% interval estimates for each of the above. Show the confidence intervals graphically and interpret your results.

8. Provide point and 95% confidence interval estimates for the weight of each brand of tuna cans. Show it graphically and interpret your results.

9. Suppose brand A’s producer claimed that the average weight of their products is 100gm. Test the validity of this claim at 5% level of significance. Clearly show the steps involved in hypothesis testing.

10. Suppose brand B’s producer claimed that less than 20% of their cans are under-filled. Test the validity of this claim at 5% level of significance. Clearly show the steps involved in hypothesis testing.

III. Summary and discussion (15 marks):

· Summarize your results and

· Critically evaluate the survey method used in this assignment.

Below are some hints to help you with the evaluation of the survey method

o Is the method of data collection consistent with random sampling? (overall data collection not the random sample that you have selected).

o Should we be concerned about the fact that the data was collected at one location only (Northland Shopping centre) on multiple days?

o Can this data be representative of all customers in Melbourne/Australia?

· What should we do to reduce the concern you might have raised in your critical analysis?

An investigation into the under-­filling of tuna cans and the demand for a new product

I. Introduction: (5 marks)

Section A: Basic Analysis (30 marks)

Section B: Intermediate level Analysis (20 marks)

Section C: Advance scenarios (30 marks)

An investigation into the under-filling of tuna cans and the demand for a new product