You are a Data scientist at Captain Flint Brewery, which is a well reputed distillery that produces whiskey, rum, beer, wine, and other alcoholic beverages. The company distributes its breweries through large supermarket chains and liquor stores that operates through a centralized system where all branches will provide the same pricing and discounts to the products they offer. However, certain branch managers can override certain discounts provided that proper reasons are given and is approved. The company has many data on customer purchases, demographics, and preferences, as well as on the performance of various products and marketing campaigns. Note that the relevant dataset is attached to the assignment. As a Data Scientist, you are responsible for making decisions about which products to stock, setting the optimum pricing, discount strategy, placing of products, and how to market them to customers. Overall, the aim of the entire process is to entice customers to spend more and create the best pricing strategy to increase the volume of sales. To make these informed decisions, you decide to use Applied analytical models to better understand the data your company has collected.

Activity $1$

$$ Examine and analyse what prescriptive predictive analytics is and compare and contrast these analytics techniques stating their advantages and disadvantages. You should discuss and compare different algorithms and analytical models used in prescriptive and predictive analytics.

$$ Use suitable prescriptive and predictive analytics methods on the given business case of Captain Flint Brewery and provide useful outputs to take the best possible actions. For instance, a prescriptive analytics method to associate what type of customers is likely to spend more on wines and what type of customers will likely spend less. You must critically evaluate and justify your answer.

Grading rubic

P$1$ Discuss the prescriptive and predictive analytical models, using examples.

M$1$ Compare prescriptive and predictive analytical models, stating their advantages and disadvantages.

D$1$ Using a case study example, critically evaluate the derived benefits from the use of an applied analytic model.

P$2$ Illustrate three analytical methods, describing how they function.