Summer provides a great opportunity for Master’s students to apply a years-worth of strategy and analytics knowledge into a shareable work product that can become part of a targeted resume – in this case, consulting, as materials for a portfolio website and for outreach in networking through LinkedIn. Talk to a career coach to discuss your own career ambitions and build a unique challenge that you can analyze over the summer that is representative of your career ambition.
What Would You Recommend? How Would You Approach Analytics to Support Your Recommendation?
- Brand Management
What are the Primary Considerations on How to Build and Protect a Full Service Brand from Casual and Take-out On-demand competition?
The biggest factors impacting the segment, such as- changes to the tipping model and service fees,
- the price/value equation versus limited-service,
- off-premises growth, and
- technology priorities
- Product Management/ Product Launch
New product launch idea for Starbuck’s
Dunkin has been a coffee and doughnut retail leader in the Northeast US for decades. Starbucks, starting on the west coast, has rapidly expanded its’ footprint and now faces a head-to-head challenge with Dunkin.- The Dunkin brand had always been tied to doughnuts – a great pairing!
- The Starbuck’s brand has always been tied to location and coffee for coffee enthusiasts willing to pay a premium for a great cup.
- The challenge: In consumer surveys, Dunkin is a head-to-head competitor with Starbucks based on the taste of their signature coffees, a surprise to Starbucks. Now Starbucks wants to leverage their locations and national presence to challenge Dunkin with a selection of fresh doughnuts. As a technology consultant, you have been asked to support the consulting team with analysis of the market, identification of viable options, and a recommendation on how to proceed.
- Phase 1: How would you approach your assignment?
- What kind of data do you need, where will you find it, what do you expect the data to look like?
- What kinds of descriptive analytics will create an accurate picture of the market between Starbucks and Dunkin based on Coffee and doughnuts.
- How will you find data to measure the impact of a new product on an existing brand identity and what lessons can be drawn from the data you find – which is likely not going to be directly related to this decision.
- How will you break up data analysis into logical stages, such as concept evaluation, customer segment analysis, marketing channel and reach analysis, customer preferences and personalization needs.
- What existing Starbucks technology will be impacted by a new product offering and how would a test market rollout work within existing systems (Mobile app, POS systems, inventory systems, supplier management systems, food safety systems)?
- What types of analytics can you imagine running (predictive models, seasonal trend analysis, sales, p/l reporting, food waste tracking)?
- Develop a presentation with clear requests for stakeholders to sign off on in terms of your approach and recommended next steps in Phase 2.
- Phase 2 –
- What is the most essential preliminary hypothesis test you can run in order to make the case to proceed or stop the project for more concept clarity?
- Your recommendations:
- Phase 1: How would you approach your assignment?
