Maddie Gamache 10/23/2022

Exercise 1.6 Introduction to Analytical Methods

Scenario 1: GameCo’s marketing team has noticed that puzzle game sales
are down this year. The finance director wants a report on what’s causing
this drop in sales, so the marketing team reach out to the analysts for help.

Answers:
(2.) The finance director is seeking insight as to “why” or “how” this drop in sales
occurred therefor, I would run a diagnostic analysis. (3.) Most likely there is more
than one variable that influences puzzle game sales so I would use multivariate
analysis to look at how different variables such as location, platform, and publisher
have in relation to puzzle game sales and use descriptive statistics to summarize the
data. (4.) To run this analysis I would like to know: 1. Are there any other genres that
have shown a significant drop in sales? 2. Are there specific platforms that have
shown a drop in puzzle sales? Maybe there is a configuration issue on certain gaming
platforms that make puzzle games less enjoyable. 3. Are there any publishers who
have decreased the amount of puzzle games they make? There might not be as many
games on the market if publishers are more focused on producing genres with higher
sale records.

Scenario 2: The sales team wants to know which games it should stock in
each city in order to most effectively meet local customer demand. Shipping
rates vary by location and this difference will need to be reflected in which
games are recommended for which locations.

Answers:
(2.) The sales team is looking for recommendations to effectively meet customer
demand. For me to make any suggestions, I would need to run a prescriptive
analysis. (3.) This would be a multivariate analysis since we are looking into variables
such as customer demand, shipping costs, inventory capacity, location, etc. and use
descriptive statistics to summarize the data. (4.) To run this analysis I would like to
know: 1. Are there any inventory limitations per location? For example, a store in
one city might be able to stock 1,000 games while a store in a different city only has
the space for 500. It would not be beneficial to recommend a high stocking level to a
store who doesn’t have the space for it. 2. What is the best-selling genre in each
location? For example, if puzzle game sales are down, but sports games are up, I
would recommend stocking more sports games. 3. What are the shipping costs to
each location? If the shipping cost outweighs the supply and demand, it would not
be profitable to send excess stock to that location.

Scenario 3: A GameCo executive is due to give a presentation at an

Answers:
(2.) To illustrate how sales vary by month of the year I would run a descriptive
analysis to look at what happened in sales each month. (3.) I would run a bivariate
analysis to look at 2 variables, global sales, and month of the year. I would run a
multivariate analysis if the executive was presenting on how regional sales vary
month to month to include location as a variable. I would use descriptive statistics to
summarize the data. (4.) To run this analysis I would like to know: 1. What is the
timespan of analysis? For example, am I only looking at the past year of data or 10
years’ worth of data? This is important to know how much data to include to
represent accurate findings. 2. Is the presentation on global sales or regional sales?
Regional sales would differ per location and would require a more detailed analysis.
3. Should I group sales by game title, publisher, platform, or genre? This helps me
understand what data is most important to include.

Scenario 4: The Olympic Games will take place in six months. GameCo’s
operations team wants to forecast how many sports games it will sell in the
months before, during, and after the games so it can order the correct
amount from the production facility.

Answers:
(2.) GameCo wants to prepare for the upcoming Olympic Games and make sure its
stores are well stocked for the influx of sports game sales. I would run a predictive
analysis to give insight on what will happen to sales when the Olympic Games
approach. (3.) This is a bivariate analysis looking at sports game sales related to the
time-periods surrounding the Olympic Games, using inferential statistics to infer
potential sales before, during, and after the Olympic Games take place. (4.) To run
this analysis I would like to know: 1. Does this analysis need to target specific
locations (proximity to where the Olympics are being held) or global sales? This will
allow me to identify which markets (or all markets) to include in analysis. 2. What is
the timespan of analysis, more specifically how many months before and after the
Olympic Games do I include? It is important to know how many months to include in
this analysis as to not make predictions irrelevant to the client’s needs. 3. Is there
access to historical data that shows evidence of anomalies in sports game sales
before, during, and after the Olympic Games? Historical data would be important to
analyze to see popular trends in the past during the same time periods. *Bonus
Question 4. Is this the timeframe during the Summer Olympics or Winter Olympics?
Time of year might influence type of games sold, for example Winter Olympics might
influence higher sales of snowboarding, skiing, or other winter sports related games
vs. Summer Olympics might influence higher sales of basketball, tennis, or other
summer sports related games.