AP Business with Personal Finance · Free-response skill

Scenario analysis: reading a launch survey

The move. Use survey numbers from an invented product launch to describe the main buyers, back a change to where it is sold, and judge what the survey cannot show.

How to do it

  1. When a question gives you a table, quote the numbers, and check who each number describes. A share of everyone surveyed and a share of one smaller group are not the same thing.
  2. A recommendation has two halves: the change (exactly what to do) and the evidence (the number in the data that points to it). Write both.
  3. Ask who was surveyed. If the survey reached only some kinds of people, say which conclusions it cannot support.
  4. Name the life-cycle stage from the facts given (how new the product is, how sales are moving), then pick a goal that fits that stage.

Practice prompt Try it

Brightfield, a fictional juice company, launched a cold-pressed vegetable juice three months ago at 6.50 dollars a bottle in 40 supermarkets. Monthly sales are small and well below target, and few shoppers have heard of the juice. Brightfield surveyed 300 people who had bought the juice at least once. Of them, 200 had not bought it a second time, and only those 200 were asked why.

Survey of people who bought Brightfield’s vegetable juice at least once

Question (who answered)AnswerShare of those who answered
Age group (all 300)18 to 2412 percent
Age group (all 300)25 to 3961 percent
Age group (all 300)40 and older27 percent
Exercise three or more times a week (all 300)Yes72 percent
Main reason for not buying it again (the 200 who did not)Hard to find in the store47 percent
Main reason for not buying it again (the 200 who did not)Taste20 percent
Main reason for not buying it again (the 200 who did not)Price too high18 percent
Main reason for not buying it again (the 200 who did not)Other15 percent
Where they would most like to buy it (all 300)Gyms and fitness studios44 percent
Where they would most like to buy it (all 300)Supermarkets31 percent
Where they would most like to buy it (all 300)Online25 percent

Use the scenario and the survey to respond to each part.

  1. Describe the juice’s buyers: name their largest age group, and give the share of buyers who exercise three or more times a week.
  2. The juice is now sold only in supermarkets. Using the survey question about where buyers would most like to buy it, recommend which other kind of place Brightfield should start selling it in, and give the number that supports your choice.
  3. Everyone surveyed had already bought the juice at least once, so shoppers who have never bought it were left out. Say one thing Brightfield cannot find out because of this.
  4. Say which stage of the product life cycle the juice is in, and give one marketing goal that fits that stage.

Write each part, then check yourself against the checklist. Nothing you type here is saved or graded.

Check yourself and see a model answer

Checklist

Our own checklist of what a full answer does, one line per point. Tick each one your response earns.

0 of 7 points

Model answer, annotated

(a) The main buyers are adults aged 25 to 39, the largest group at 61 percent of buyers, and they are active: 72 percent exercise three or more times a week.

  • Point 1 Names the largest age group with its share.
  • Point 2 Adds the exercise habit, with its share.

(b) Brightfield should start selling the juice in gyms and fitness studios. That is where the largest share of buyers, 44 percent, said they would most like to buy it, ahead of supermarkets at 31 percent and online at 25 percent.

  • Point 3 Names gyms and fitness studios as the new place.
  • Point 4 Gives the 44 percent and shows it is the largest share.

(c) Because shoppers who have never bought the juice were not asked, Brightfield cannot find out why they have not tried it, for example the price, not having seen it, or not trusting a vegetable juice.

  • Point 5 Names what cannot be learned about never-buyers: why they have not tried it.

(d) The juice is in the introduction stage: it launched only three months ago, its sales are small and few shoppers have heard of it. A fitting goal is to build awareness and get more people to try it, for example with free samples at gyms.

  • Point 6 Names introduction and ties it to the facts given.
  • Point 7 Gives awareness and trial, goals that fit introduction.