USC Student Beverage Market Analysis

This assignment analyzes the beverage market among USC students. Through a survey of 80 students, it examines factors like price impact on consumption, popularity of different beverage categories (domestic vs. international), and student loyalty to specific brands. The analysis reveals interesting trends in student preferences and highlights the influence of price discounts on their purchasing decisions.

Quantitative Methods
STUDENT ID:
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Introduction
The given analysis has been conducted so as to enhance the overall understanding of the
beverage market in relation to USC students. For enabling this task, survey was designed and
responses were collected from the students with relation to the patterns related to the
beverage demand & consumption along with the manner price impacts both demand and
loyalty. Instead of conducting the analysis on the population data, a random sample of 80
responses has been selected through the aid of Excel. It is noteworthy that the underlying
sampling used for obtaining the sample was random. Analysis has been conducted on the
sample data in congruence with a host of statistical tools and techniques to provide an insight
into the student beverage preferences that are outlined in the section below.
Data Analysis
In accordance with the calculations that have been executed through excel, the conclusions
highlighted below can be drawn.
1) With regards to proportion of domestic and international students, it needs to be
considered that 72 students out of 80 are domestic students and the rest are international
students. As a result, domestic students sample proportion amount to 90% while the
corresponding value for international students comes out as 10%.
2) Based on the given data, it can be concluded that as there is an increase in the beverage
price there would be a reduction in the consumption. This is reflective of the inverse
relationship that the price of beverage and quantity consumed is exhibiting. The scatter
plot indicated below further confirms the same.

The above scatterplot confirms with the law of demand whereby price and quantity
demanded are inversely related. Also, there seems to be high linearity in the relationship.
3) According to the sample data, the most popular beverage belongs to the other category as
most number of students in the selected sample i.e. 37 has voted for the same. Also, the
least popular beverage amongst the students is energy drinks as it has the highest number
of responses in the least popular beverage. The responses summary for the given sample is
as outlined below.
4) For evaluation of the beverage loyalty, it is required that the impact of price discount on
the responses of the students need to be analysed. If by giving a price discount, a large
proportion of the students would make the shift, then it would be indicative of low loyalty.
Based on the computations using the sample data, it is apparent that when a price discount
to the tune of 25% is offered, only 20% of the students make a shift to the second
preferred drink. But, the increasing of discount to 40% results in the students shifting
increasing to 56%. Thus, considering that more than 50% of the students made a shift
with 40% price discount in their second preferred drink, hence students are not very loyal
in terms of beverages.
5) In order to highlight the difference in behaviour of international and domestic students, it
would be worthwhile to compare the respective scatterplots between price and quantity
consumed for both the groups. This is as illustrated below.

Based on the above scatter plot, it is apparent that the demand for domestic students tends
to have a higher negative correlation with price in comparison with international students.
Thus, the quantity consumed of beverages is more impacted by price for domestic students
in comparison with international students.

6) The beverage preference summary pertaining to the domestic students is shown as follows.
For the domestic students, the most popular beverage category is other which has been
favoured by 34 students out of the total 72. Further, the beverage that is least popular for
domestic students is energy drinks which has been voted by 30 students out of the total 72 in
the sample selected.
The beverage preference summary pertaining to the international students is shown as
follows.
For the international students, the most popular beverage category is Tea/coffe which has
been favoured by 4 students out of the total 8. Further, the beverage that is least popular for
domestic students is energy drinks which has been voted by 4 students out of the total 8 in the
sample selected.
7) Based on the sample obtained, the population estimate is enabled using inferential
statistical technique. It may be said with a 95% confidence that student proportion in the
population who would prefer soft drinks would be lying in the range of 7.18% and
22.82%.
Summary
In line with the data analysis conducted above, a host of observations can be made. The
international students’ proportion is quite small and a dominant proportion comprises of
domestic students. The price and consumed amount of beverage share an inverse relationship
on expected lines. However, there is difference in nature of relationship between domestic
and international students. Further, these differences between the international and domestic
students are also observed in case of beverage preference. While for both student groups, the
least popular beverage is energy drinks but the same cannot be said about the most popular
drink. The most popular drink for domestic students belongs to the other category unlike
international students who prefer tea/coffee. Loyalty amongst the students in relation to

beverages is not very high as majority of the students (i.e. >50%) are willing to shift to a
second preference drink when discount to the tune of 40% is offered on the same. Besides, it
is also evident that soft drinks are not very popular amongst USC university students as is
apparent from the confidence interval derived.