Determine what percentage of the total variation in candy bar sales is explained by prices?

Rawchoc 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 it 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 have also established that this is strongly correlated with an Olympic spirit. To exploit this new trend Rawchoc is planning to launch a new product following the success of ‘Team GB’ at the Brazil Summer Olympics. Rawchoc’s innovation and product design team plan to market a chocolate bar for keeping weight under control, with average calories of 197 per unit.

Rawchoc has hired you for your analytical insights. Your job is to collate and analyse a range of data to recommend a competitive product for the healthy snack food market.

Task 1: (30 Marks)

Using the food table in the dataset provided, prepare a list of alternative snacks i.e. direct competitors to the new product. You are required to:

1. Sort, list & format the dataset into appropriate categories related to food groups e.g. chocolate-based snacks, baked food, healthier snacks etc.
[10 marks]
2. Prepare appropriate graphs displaying & comparing calories, of the categories.
[5 marks]
3. Calculate summary statistics such as the mean, median and standard deviations of the categories.
[5 marks]
4. Give a brief critical discussion of the summary statistics from part 3.
[5 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?
[5 marks]

Task 2 (25 Marks)

Rawchoc is now interested in trying to estimate how sales are influenced by the price of their products. To do this, the company randomly chooses 10 UK cities and offers the candy bar at different prices and run a regression analysis on price and sales data.

City Price (£) Sales
London 1.46 98
Birmingham 2.55 87
Manchester 2.80 56
Derby 2.10 80
Edinburgh 3.80 51
Glasgow 4.10 38
Cardiff 3.00 72
Belfast 4.60 31
Portsmouth 3.10 55
Bristol 3.50 45

1. Using sales as the dependent variable, conduct linear regression analysis*.
[5 marks]
2. Generate the scatterplot.
[4 marks]
3. Write the regression equation using the results of the excel table.
[5 marks]
4. Determine & interpret the slope and the intercept.
[6 marks]
5. Determine what percentage of the total variation in candy bar sales is explained by prices?