© A.J. Henley and Dave Wolf 2018
A.J. Henley and Dave WolfLearn Data Analysis with Pythonhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-3486-0_6

6. Practice Problems

A. J. Henley1  and Dave Wolf2
(1)
Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, USA
(2)
Sterling Business Advantage, LLC, Adamstown, Maryland, USA
 

In this chapter, you will find problems you can use to practice what you have learned. Feel free to use any of the techniques that you have learned, but don’t use them all. It would be overkill. Have fun, and good luck!

Analysis Exercise 1

For this exercise, you can find the data in datasets/algebradata.csv.

Frank Mulligrew is the algebra coordinator for Washington, DC public schools. He is required by the school board to gather some statistics. Using the information about his class, calculate the following:
  1. 1.

    Percentage of students with a passing grade

     
  2. 2.

    Percentage of women with a passing grade

     
  3. 3.

    Average hours of study for all students

     
  4. 4.

    Average hours of study for students with a passing grade

     

Analysis Exercise 2

You can find the data in the datasets/axisdata file.

Carlos Hugens is the sales manager for Axis Auto Sales , a low-cost regional chain of used car lots. Carlos is getting ready for his annual sales meeting and is looking for the best way to improve his sales group’s performance. His data includes the gender, years of experience, sales training, and hours worked per week for each team member. It also includes the average cars sold per month by each salesperson. Find out the following:
  1. 1.

    Average cars sold per month

     
  2. 2.

    Max cars sold per month

     
  3. 3.

    Min cars sold per month

     
  4. 4.

    Average cars sold per month by gender

     
  5. 5.

    Average hours worked by people selling more than three cars per month

     
  6. 6.

    Average years of experience

     
  7. 7.

    Average years of experience for people selling more than three cars per month

     
  8. 8.

    Average cars sold per month sorted by whether they have had sales training

     

What do you think is the best indicator of whether someone is a good salesperson?

Analysis Exercise 3

The data can be found in datasets/dvddata.xlsx.

Baumgartner DVD’s sells high-quality DVD duplicators nationwide. You have just been promoted to sales manager and tasked with analyzing sales trends and making decisions about the best way to handle your sales in the future.

Right now, each of your salespeople covers one or more districts within the same region. Your salespeople contact their customers through either emails, phone calls, or office visits. Emails take about one minute each. Phone calls take about twenty minutes each, and office visits take about two hours. Your staff people work a standard forty-hour week.
  1. 1.

    Figure out the impact of communication methods on number of duplicators sold in a month.

     
  2. 2.

    Build a model that will predict the number of sales given the number of clients and frequency of each mode of communication.

     

Analysis Exercise 4

The data can be found in datasets/tamiami.xlsx.

Tami , from Miami, wants to open a tamale cart in New York City. She already knows her expenses, but she doesn’t know what to charge. She was able to secure the average daily sales data for hot-dog carts by district in the NYC area. Analyze this data to figure out a relationship between price and quantity sold. You can use this relationship as a benchmark for what people are willing to spend for a quick lunch. You need to provide the following:
  1. 1.

    The list of other relevant factors (other than price) that affect sales (if any)

     
  2. 2.

    The equation for sales quantity

     

Analysis Project

The data can be found in datasets/southstyle.xlsx.

South Carolina–based SouthStyle Foods , a leading manufacturer of sausage, has been selling its products under the brand name SouthStyle for the last 40 years. SouthStyle Foods is engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of high-quality southern-style processed foods such as sausage, bacon, hoppin’ john, collard greens, etc. The company provides a perfect blend of traditional southern-style taste tailored to the requirements and preferences of the modern consumer. It combines better taste with natural purity, innovative packaging, and care for health and comes at a reasonable price.

With quality food products and focus on customer satisfaction, SouthStyle Foods maintains a leading position in the processed food section by widening its customer base and making its products available at affordable prices both in South Carolina and nationwide. As a part of its initiatives, the company planned to expand its business to increase the sales of its products in other regions. However, for this, the company wants to know the factors that can increase sales across different states. However, with some new companies coming up, very recently the company witnessed an increase in competition across the industry, resulting in a decrease in its sales.

To discuss the issues, the president, Ashley Sears, called a meeting of the company’s senior officers. During a rather lively discussion, they discussed many factors for the fall in sales. However, no common factor emerged. The marketing VP suggested hiring a consultant experienced in business research, and everyone agreed.

SouthStyle Foods hired your marketing research agency, Care Research, for the job. After listening to the problem, your boss thought of using a cross-sectional analysis of the problem, as there are 30 territories from which it must collect data. Your firm started identifying the variables that, according to the company, might have an impact on sales. Based on the collected information (Exhibit I) and the previous studies done, you came up with five important variables that are expected to be crucial in determining the sales. These variables are market potential in the territory, number of shops selling processed foods, number of brokers, number of popular brands in that territory, and population of that territory. The marketing VP wants to know the most important factor or factors to focus on. He also wants to know the likely future demand.

Required Deliverables

  1. 1.

    Identify the most important factors for SouthStyle Foods to focus on.

     
  2. 2.

    Create a formula or model that will allow SouthStyle Foods to forecast their sales as they move into new territories.

     
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