Consumer Behavior Analysis
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND
PROCESS
ANALYSIS
Original Kaggle File
OUTSIDE RESEARCH
Due to the general findings in the analytical process and to provide a more complete analysis, I conducted background research as well as integrated my prior Consumer Behavior knowledge from my undergraduate degree.
We know that currently from the SQL and statistical analysis, there is a male dominant audience and no significant ROI on the subscription program. Female customers are completely absent from the subscription program, which tells me the marketing of the subscription program and promotional offers were very gendered, ultimately alienating a significant part of the customer base.
To build on these findings with outside research, I focused on two main areas that would help achieve the ultimate goal of growing the subscriber and customer base.
1. Subscription Programs & CRM
2. Gender Neutral Marketing
These topics helped to fill in the gaps of our analysis with market research. This allows us to make more specific recommendations even though the analysis revealed homogenous product preferences amongst statistically significant customer populations.
SUBSCRIPTIONS & CRM
GENDER NEUTRAL MARKETING
Gender is a significant factor in the current audience. There is a significant male bias currently, which in itself, isn't a negative, but there is a significant part of the audience being alienated in current customer marketing strategies. We know this through the absence of female customers enrolled in the subscription program or even using the promo-codes for a discount. This is what leads me to believe the past marketing strategies employed had reinforced these gender stereotypes of male dominated outdoor sports. Even with this, OTR has still grown a significant female customer base, telling me that the value proposition of the product and OTR in itself is actually gender neutral. This is confirmed through homogeneous product preferences for male and female customers (no significant difference in the purchase proportion of items between male and female customers). A gender neutral product and marketing strategy would actually align more with current customer preferences and grow the customer base with more diverse consumers than the current one.
Gender neutral marketing is becoming a more popular for a variety of reasons:
1) Younger customers generally favor gender neutral marketing
2) Traditional gender norms have themselves become less relevant to modern customer's lives
3) Gendered marketing can make customers more adverse to purchasing a product, particularly women
OTR in particular needs to attract female customers without alienating the current male dominated customer base. Gender neutral marketing is a obvious strategy that OTR can employ to subtly appeal to a broader audience without major brand identity or marketing changes. When there is more specific information with the creation of the updated database and BI platform, I would track the number of new customers and subscribers and reevaluate the success of the marketing and subscription program changes and how they compare to the present gender makeup of the customer population.
RECCOMENDATIONS
This analysis is based around a fictional outdoors apparel brand that wants to know more about their customer base; specifically, who their customers are and how to effectively grow and retain customers through their promotional strategies and subscription incentives. This requires understanding customer demographics and current best sellers to inform future strategies.
To deliver this analysis, I completed the following steps:
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SQL Exploratory and Descriptive Analysis
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Excel Statistical Testing
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Outside research on Subscriptions, CRM, and Gender Neutral Marketing
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Present findings in multiple formats (slide shows, interactive Tableau dashboard) for different audiences (Marketing team, Product team, Executive/ Upper Management)
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Recommendations for improving data quality and how to use it
These steps revealed a male dominant audience with a lack of female customers. The female customers that OTR does have, aren't subscribed or using promotions / discounts on their purchases. This shows a male bias in marketing past programs, but overall, the product preferences of customers regardless of gender is fairly homogeneous, showing potential for a more gender neutral customer base through product based promotion and renewed subscription incentive structure.
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SQL Code Repository
Excel Analysis File
On The Run is a low to mid tier outdoors apparel brand that sells no-frills items with functional selling points, such as a temperature rating, waterproof material, etc. rather than innovative styles. The customer base of OTR is the outdoor community and those who value function over fashion; this appeal is likely why there is an overrepresentation of male customers in the audience. Now, OTR wants to diversify their audience mix and revamp their subscription program to get an ROI from subscribed customers. OTR wants to know current customer preferences and how to parlay them into successful promotional campaigns to attract new and current customers.
To do this, a two-pronged approach to the analysis is taken to identify:
1) any distinct customer patterns
2) popular items that drive sales
After the SQL analysis, statistical testing is done to build on the former findings and test their significance. These findings and the conclusions drawn are distilled and presented in various formats to communicate the same information to different audiences.
Subscribers are on the borderline of having a return on investment. Because of this, along with the current research of the value of subscription programs, I recommend restructuring the current program rather than scrapping it. The current subscription program lacks a significant value proposition that would appeal to female customers. Without additional program info, we can't make any definitive conclusions, but it's clear the current subscription program needs changes to attract new and current customers. Even female customers with 50 previous purchases are not subscribed, pointing to an ineffective enrollment strategy, benfits, or marketing of subscriptions.
Programs like tiered subscription programs are incredibly effective and popular ways to foster active customer engagement. These tiers also double as customer segments allowing you to reward high value customers with better rewards. This reward to higher value customers strengthens the brand loyalty amongst customers and creates an organic brand advocacy amongst their social group. These are the unseen benefits of an effective subscription program that OTR is currently missing out on.
This presentation is a walkthrough of my analytical process in MySQL and Excel that both outlines my logical reasoning, and demonstrates my technical skills, organizational and communication skills.
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DELIVERABLES
These deliverables depict the ways I modify certain understandings to suit the requirements of multiple teams, converting large raw data into a collection of important conclusions. I use dashboards and presentations to guarantee audiences get the most relevant and impactful information, which enables good decisions.
PRODUCT OVERVIEW DASHBOARD
This Tableau dashboard allows buying and allocation teams to carefully examine a product's performance. They can do this by thoroughly monitoring currently available key metrics such as sales, customer engagement, and product reviews.
CUSTOMER OVERVIEW DASHBOARD
Designed for understanding customers with the current data, this dashboard points out key demographics, behaviors, and purchasing trends to inform strategies for getting and keeping customers.
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW PRESENTATION
This presentation points out what Marketing hopes to achieve by 2025 in addition to discussing current problems related to missing data. It also covers the requirement for a combined database alongside better Business Intelligence tools. To fully understand the existing limitations and take concrete actions to improve choices, executives need to use higher quality data.
MARKETING TEAM PRESENTATION
This presentation thoroughly points out all existing data gaps, helpfully introduces all brand new database and BI tools, and carefully outlines every one of this year’s upcoming marketing goals and important projects. It provides a clear strategy, specific messaging, and a plan for using data more efficiently to improve targeting.