Data Driven Decisions for Business Summative CW3 Assessment Brief - BPP

1. General Assessment Guidance

• Your summative assessment for this module is made up of this 2,500 submission which accounts for 100% of the marks.
• Please note late submissions will not be marked.
• You are required to submit all elements of your assessment via Turnitin online access. Only submissions made via the specified mode will be accepted and hard copies or any other digital form of submissions (like via email or pen drive etc.) will not be accepted.
• For coursework, the submission word limit is 2,500 words. You must comply with the word count guidelines. You may submit LESS than 2,500 words but not more. Word Count guidelines can be found on your programme home page and the coursework submission page.
• Do not put your name or contact details anywhere on your submission. You should only put your student registration number (SRN) which will ensure your submission is recognised in the marking process.
• A total of 100 marks are available for this module assessment, and you are required to achieve minimum 50% to pass this module.
• You are required to use only Harvard Referencing System in your submission. Any content which is already published by other author(s) and is not referenced will be considered as a case of plagiarism.
  You can find further information on Harvard Referencing in the online library on the Hub. You can use the following link to access this information: https://bpp.libguides.com/home/business
• BPP University has a strict policy regarding authenticity of assessments. In proven instances of plagiarism or collusion, severe punishment will be imposed on offenders. You are advised to read the rules and regulations regarding plagiarism and collusion in the GARs and UPPs which are available on the HUB in the Help and Support section under Documents and Forms.
• Use of AI in assessments is only allowed for the purposes of reviewing a draft, correcting language errors or if specified in the summative assessment brief. If you have used AI for any of these purposes, you should indicate this on the Assignment Cover sheet. For more information regarding acceptable and unacceptable use of AI, please enrol onto the Generative AI Foundations course on the HUB.
• You should include a completed copy of the Assignment Cover sheet. Any submission without this completed Assignment Cover sheet may be considered invalid and not marked.

2. Assessment Brief

2.1. Assessment learning outcomes

This assessment is designed to gauge your understanding, skills and application of common data analysis techniques used in business and other organisations today. As such you need to demonstrate your attainment in these areas according to the four Module Learning Outcomes (LOs):

• LO1: Critically evaluate the evolving use of data in solving business problems, presenting logical arguments based on evidence
• LO2: Explore how data analytics can be used within a business context
• LO3: Critically appraise the presentation of data within a business environment
• LO4: Critically evaluate different business analytical techniques as part of planning a data analytics initiative.

2.2. Scenario

You have recently been employed by Aphrodite Beauty Ltd. as a data analyst.
Aphrodite Beauty Ltd. is a UK-based producer of beauty products selling across the UK and abroad. The company offers its products under its brand Aphrodite. The brand includes beauty products from Shampoo and Conditioner, Shower Gel, to Perfume, Eau de Toilette and Massage Oils.

Aphrodite Beauty Ltd. has grown successfully selling its brand across many of the high street retailers in the UK including John Lewis, H&M and M&S. The company has also expanded business in other countries in Europe, in particular in the Netherlands and Portugal where it uses leading local retailers to sell its products.

As Aphrodite Beauty Ltd. expands, it continues to increase its data analytic roles within the organisation to strengthen its strategic decision-making capabilities. The recruitment strategy is to employ young professionals with strategic and data analytics skills willing to provide Aphrodite Beauty Ltd. top management with strong evidence-based foundation for their business decisions. They like recruits to have a broad management experience combined with strong academic background. Your MSc Management degree at BPP University was a key element in their decision to recruit you.

As part of the induction process at Aphrodite Beauty Ltd., you have joined the Finance Department as junior data analyst. Your manager requested you to complete a number of tasks to ensure that you have a grounded knowledge and understanding of data analytics and its application in decision-making. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your capability and give your employer the confidence to let you run your own project in the future.

As part of your first duties, your manager asked you to join the team in charge of the development of next year’s Business Plan for the company. The team is analysing different options for growth, which include expanding in more countries abroad, new product development and diversification into new business areas. However, it makes sense to define the strategy based on these options only if the current business model does not provide the expansion and growth opportunities expected by the top management. So, you have been given the responsibility to analyse Aphrodite Beauty Ltd.’s current business performance.

Your job will be to analyse the performance of the business in Austria, the Netherlands and Portugal.

Aphrodite Beauty Ltd. has experienced strong competition in these countries from international sport brands such as L'Oreal, Nivea, Revlon and Avon. So, the performance in these countries is a good indication of the current overall market position of the company.

2.3. Research objectives and tasks

The Finance Director, who is responsible for assessing the financial viability of the company to invest in the different growth scenarios, is interested in understanding the option of opening own branded shops, so that the company can sell its products directly to customers without going through distributors and local retailers. This strategy will also allow Aphrodite Beauty Ltd. to strengthen its brand against competitors who have already branded shops such as the French brand L'Occitane. For this purpose, he wants you to: Perform a sales value and volume analysis of the three countries to identify the best country to open the first branded shop.

As part of the analysis, the Creative Director wants to consider the re-development of the product portfolio. He wants to focus on improving current products in terms of quality and design, therefore enhancing the market position and competitiveness of the Aphrodite brand.

However, since the budget for product development has been reduced in the last few years, the improvement efforts have to be concentrated only on few products, that is, the high-selling products. The current portfolio of beauty products is made of the following beauty product categories:

• Skincare
• Makeup
• Haircare
• Nailcare
• Fragrance
• Bath & shower

In this respect, he wants you to:

Perform an analysis of the product offering to identify best performing beauty products to focus its product development efforts.

In addition to competing against global brands, Aphrodite Beauty Ltd. has also experienced strong competition from retailer’s private brands. A private brand, also called a private-label brand, is a brand owned by a company and offered by that company alongside and competing with brands from other businesses/suppliers. Many high-street retailers have developed their own private brands as a way to improve their profitability at the expenses of their suppliers’ business. Aphrodite brand faces pressure from private labels which in many cases offer equivalent sport products at less price and have more shelves space at the retailers’ stores. For instance, M&S in the UK launched in 2023 its own-brand skincare line called Fresh Elements. One option Aphrodite Beauty Ltd.’s management is considering becoming a manufacturer for private brands to balance this pressure. By supplying beauty products to private brands, the company could improve production (asset utilisation) achieving economies of scale which translate into lower costs of production for Aphrodite branded products, therefore allowing to keep profitability even under price promotions.

Taking a cautious approach to dealing with private brands where distribution partners are also competitors, in June 2023 the company run a trial in the Netherlands where three outsource contracts were signed with leading retailers to produce their private brand sportwear products lines. The revenue of the Netherlands is the combination of the sales from the Aphrodite brand and the income from the production of sport products for private brands. The Sales Director is keen to understand if this new strategy could be expanded to other countries. So, he wants you to address the question:

Did the three contracts signed in the Netherlands to produce beauty products for private brands have a positive impact on the sales performance of the subsidiary?

The responses to the issues detailed above should be included in a summary MS Word report that you save and submit.

2.4. Report Sections

Because this is your first project within Aphrodite Beauty Ltd., the management team has given you additional details regarding the structure and content that it is expected to see in your report. This is set out in Section 3 – Report Structure.

The set of data is available (see module dataset spreadsheet file). Since the data comes directly from the countries, quality issues are present which will require your attention!

You have four Sections to complete for your summative report.

Section 1 (LO4): Introduction and project plan

Summarise what you are going to present in the report. Then justify your plan for delivering the research project to the management of Aphrodite Beauty Ltd., making sure you also clearly refer to a data analytics implementation framework as part of your plan. Finally, explain how data analytics can add value and help to drive business performance improvements to Aphrodite Beauty Ltd.

Section 2 (LO2):

a)Data quality issues and remedies

Proceed with preparing the dataset for the analysis. Discuss initially the general issues encountered in collecting, reviewing and cleansing data and then detail the specific data quality issues you found in the project dataset and how these issues will be addressed.

b)Data analysis and commentary

Using only tables, set out and explain the results of your numeric data analysis and supporting commentary. Start by including a summary of exploratory data analysis of the dataset. Then create tables where you can analyse the overall performance of Aphrodite Beauty Ltd. as well as its performance by country and by beauty product category. To answer the Section, you should perform your analysis using at least 3 tables (see guidelines for further details).

Section 3 (LO3): Data charting and commentary

Use your data charting and interpretation skills to develop graphical presentations of the data together with bullet-points setting out the key findings and inferences from the analysis. Create charts where you can compare and analyse volume and revenue trends over time by country and by beauty product category, in particular where you can see evidence of any performance change due to the three contracts signed in 2023 in the Netherlands to produce beauty products for local private brands. To answer the Section, you should perform your analysis using at least 3 charts (see guidelines for further details).

Section 4 (LO1): Conclusions and recommendations

Based on your analysis and findings in Sections 3 and 4 set-out your conclusions and recommendations to Aphrodite Beauty Ltd.’s top management. As part of your conclusions, include answers to the three project objectives raised by the top management.
Report Structure and References

In addition, marks are awarded for the overall professionalism of your report and the adoption of academic standards.

2.5. Section guidelines

The following section provides guidelines on the steps needed to perform each one of the Sections of this assignment.

Report structure and references guidelines:

• Your report should follow the section naming structure and order set out in the Brief. You should also add your own sub-headings as you see fit to demonstrate your ability to on-develop structure and content.
• Your report should include an auto-generated contents page including section headings and sub-headings. The contents page should also include a page-referenced list of all tables, charts and figures provided in your report. Remember to number all pages in your report, for example ‘Page 8 of 12’.
• Ensure you develop your discussion in a logical progression: Findings, inferences, conclusions, recommendations.
• Do not make general assertions without supporting evidence.
• Zero spelling errors and grammatical mistakes.
• Cite all your sources in the body of the text and in the Referencing using the Harvard Referencing style.
• Include a blend of industry research, case studies and academic references.

3. Report Structure

You should set out your report according to the following heading structure. You should add sub-headings under this overall structure as you feel fit to demonstrate your ability to on-develop the section themes and to provide meaningful sub-structure. But you must use this overall structure in order to provide a consistent framework against which your marker will allocate marks. You will be deducted marks if you do not follow this structure. Also note that there is no requirement for producing an Executive Summary.
University Cover Page
Table of contents

1. Introduction and project plan
2. Data quality issues and remedies
3. Data analysis and commentary
4. Data charting and commentary
5. Conclusions and recommendations
6. References
7. Appendix (optional)

In addition, you may wish to add further appendices as you see fit in order to support your work. Word count: 2,500. Cover Page, Table of Contents, References, Appendices, Tables, Charts and Figures do not count towards word count.