MCS $3030$ W$24$ Assignment

Scenario

Assume that you work for a craft beverage company. You have a popular kombucha line$-$up that is selling well at Whole Foods and boutique natural food stores throughout Toronto and Southwestern Ontario. Your best selling kombucha flavour is lemon, but you also have strong shows from mango, apple, honey, and grapefruit flavours. All flavours appear to be showing strong growth.

Leadership at the company wants to expand their distribution to Western Canada. They are convinced that B$.$C$.$ is "full of hippies" who can't get enough fermented tea. However, the B$.$C$.$ retailers they've approached so far have been skeptical. They aren't sure they should allocate any new shelf space to another new kombucha brand and are skeptical there will be enough demand at their stores to justify the new listing. Your manager has tasked you to lead a research project to help address these concerns.

Questions

What is the business question that needs to be addressed here?

Frame this question as a hypothesis. What are the null and alternative hypotheses?

Describe the study's methodology.

Describe the key measures in the study. Explain their rationale and how they are captured in the methodology.

How would you design the sample for this study? Explain the sample methodology, provide the sample plan, and identify required sample sizes.

Discuss the implications of this research. What does it mean if you reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis? How will this impact stakeholders?

What are limitations and potential biases in this research? Provide a fair and detailed criticism of your methodology.

How could you respond this criticism $($Q$7)?$ What additional information, research, or rational could you bring to support$/$defend your approach?