Case Study Problem

You've been manager at Aldrich Distributor for only 3 months, it is your first job out of college and a big break. One of the reasons you were hired was that you had worked as a student intern in the Aldrich for 2 years during the Wing Thing Fair. The Wing Thing was really a contest among restaurants, fast-food vendors, and people around town that think they have the best recipe for barbeque wings. You always thought the name was stupid, but you couldn't ignore the 30,000 to 35,000 people who attended every year.

Each year, Aldrich Distributors have the beer concession for the fair, The profits usually amount to about $2 per attendee. That's more profit in a weekend than your yearly salary plus bonus, You were in charge of deciding which beers sell at the Wing Thing this year, and you were desperate to make the right decision.

How much light beer versus regular beer? How many premium and specialty beers? How many beer stations should be located around the fair? Where should they be located? How many people should you hire to staff the beer station? Lots of questions, and you were responsible for having the correct answers.

But this year, things were bad. Thirty-nine thousand people attended a new record. But the profits from beer sales were less than $50,000. You should have made almost $80,000 in profits. You knew you did badly, and the visit from your boss just made it worse. You wouldn't get fired, but there wouldn't be a bonus this year, Even worse, your boss wants to take the Wing Thing away from you next year.

To keep the Wing Thing, you'll have to analyze what you did wrong, explain to your boss how you'd fix the problem, and make a great plan for next year. You've been thinking about what went wrong, and you have plenty of ideas.

One thing was that you were unsure of yourself, and you hired a marketing consultant to make recommendations. That report was mailed to you and arrived the Monday after the Wing Thing weekend. Several pieces of information were in the report. One prediction was that 10 percent of the people at the fair would bring a pet. That was interesting, but didn't help to predict beer sales.

Age and gender have been two good predictors in the past, People aged 21 and 25 tend to purchase less-expensive beers. Those older than 25 tend to purchase more expensive beers, which have a higher profit margin. Women tend to drink more light beer.

The weather is also a predictor. The warmer the day. The more beer that will be sold. The weather forecast for the next two days has always been pretty accurate, so you could have used that information to predict beer sales.

Assignment:

1.) Information should be timely, accurate, complete, and relevant. Discuss the information you received from the consultant in these terms. Be as specific as you can. Don't just say something was wrong, explain why it was wrong and what could have made it right.

2.) Assume your boss lets you run Wing Thing beer sales next year. Also, assume that you want to collect information during Wing Thing that will help predict beer sales for the following year. What information should you collect? How is the information timely, accurate, relevant, and complete?