ICT 205 Analysis of Data With Respect To Ramen Varieties Assessment 2 Answer

Introduction

The following pages provide an analysis of data with respect to ramen varieties and brands available across various countries. The ramen is available in various styles of packaging also. The main parameters include star rating for each variant and the corresponding number of reviews. The ratings have been provided by an Australian food review company, called Super Rating.

The objective of this report is to assist the owner of Oishii Ramen, Mr.Takashi Hajita in taking strategic decisions regarding launch of a new ramen brand and variant.

Product Reviews

1. From the spreadsheet, briefly discuss the product reviews and explaining how you can interpret each product review correctly. Do the reviews on the spreadsheet suffice enough to help you to analyse ramen’s sales performance objectively at the country level? If yes, please explain.

For this purpose, a pivot table has been created with average star rating and number of reviews for each country. The data has been further sorted on basis of average star rating. It was found that for USA, average star rating was very high as was the number of reviews. On looking at data, it was found that some of the fields had multiple ratings which was being read incorrectly as dates by MS-Excel due to format issues. It was rectified but this indicates that the given data cannot be used to analyse Ramen’s sales performance.

Further, coming to number of reviews also, the number varies largely with each country. Hence, we cannot say that the average rating would be a good indicator to analyse the sales performance at the country level. 

Packaging Style

2. The CEO OF Oishii Ramen would like to know if the ramen packaging style contributes to influencing consumers’ purchasing power? Does culture play a significant role in terms of packaging style? Justify your findings by showing two dashboards and explaining your rationale.  (3 marks) (max 200 words)

For this purpose, a pivot table has been created with each country and corresponding number of varieties in each packaging style. The data has also been analysed for each country on the basis of style and average star rating. Further, the data has also been analysed on basis of packaging styles available in how many countries.

• Ratings & review Count: It can be seen that maximum number of reviews are for Pack style at 1948 reviews with an average star rating of 3.76. Hence, it seems to be the most popular (in terms of volume purchased). 
• Style Availability in Countries: The Pack style is also available across a lot of countries (1948 countries) followed by Bowl style (655 countries) and Cup style (593 countries). Hence, we can say that the packaging style contributes to influencing purchasing power for the customers.
• Countrywise: It can be seen that maximum number of varieties are available in Japan (606), followed by United States (420), South Korea (383), Taiwan (351), China (217). Further, in all of these Top 5 countries, the most widely available style is Pack, followed by Bowl. In fact, except Japan where both the styles are still close, in all other countries Pack leads by a substantial margin.
• Hence, we cannot say that the cultural influence is there on preference for style as pack style seems to be favorite across cultures.

Use of Rating

3. In what way can Oishii Ramen’s headquarters use the rating and which rating is the most appropriate for them ?  (2 marks) (max 100 words)

For this purpose, a pivot table using the different varieties of ramen and their respective average ratings for different packaging style has been created. Oishii Ramen can analyse the table to arrive at best possible combination of style and average rating for each variety. The style with maximum reviews and highest average star rating will be the best possible combination for each variety. Further, the lower rated products can be scrapped from consideration list.

Popularity of Ramen

4. Suggest a technique that you can use to demonstrate to the CEO the popularity of ramen in the country, and justify and show your method with evidence. (3 marks) (200 words)

For this purpose, the number of brands and varieties available in each country has been depicted using the pivot table tool. When this pivot table was sorted in descending order, the top countries represent the countries with a large ramen market with multiple brands, varieties and competition. This can suggest potential for growth and possibility of capturing a high market share. The top 10 countries are: Japan, United States, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Singapore. These countries are historically known to have a large population that consumes ramen and noodles are staple diet in majority of these countries.

Reliability

5. How reliable is the ramen ranking to the CEO if it is chosen to review the business’s sales performance or growth?  (2 marks) (max 100 words)

The review of business sales, performance or growth requires much more quantitative data such as, actual sales data, market data, market share of competitors etc. The available parameters of star rating for various ramen varieties and number of reviews for each ramen are not sufficient to analyse business sales performance. 

Further, the unique brands and their presence across the globe can provide some idea about the strength of various competitors but it does not indicate the upcoming plans for expansion. From given, it can only be seen that while 71 brands have presence in 10 or more countries, the remaining 424 brands are present in less than 10 countries.

Discontinuation

6. During the investigation, you want to propose some brands to discontinue. Which ramen brands would you suggest for discontinuation? Justify your answer. (4 marks) (max 300 words)

From the given parameters, the average star rating can be utilized to propose discontinuation of some brands. A pivot table has been prepared for this purpose with the name of each brand and corresponding average star rating. The overall average star rating for the given sample is 3.70. Hence, the brands that have an average star rating below the global average of 3.70 can be put forward for discontinuation.

Names of such brands have been highlighted through conditional formatting. Out of a total of 495 brands, 239 brands have an average star rating of less than 3.7

Japan & Korea

7. Compare the reviews of ramen in Japan and Korea. Are there any similar reviews? If so, prove it. (4 marks)  (max 200 words)

For this purpose, pivot tables have been created with average star rating and number of reviews for each of the style. Both the countries show similarities such as preference of style where Pack is the most preferred, followed by Bowl, then Cup and then Tray. Box style is available only in Japan which has the highest average rating in the country.

The total number of reviews in Japan is 606 with an average star rating of 3.92 while in South Korea, it is 383 with an average star rating of 3.86. While the number of reviews varies (perhaps due to country size or number of active people for reviewing), the star rating averages are very close for the two countries.

Japan has a total of 88 unique brands while South Korea has a total of 46 unique brands.

Similarity in Food

8. Do Asia, Australia, and America have foods that taste similar to ramen?  (2 marks) (max 100 words)

Majority of Asians have noodles as their staple food and it closely resembles to Ramen when cooked. Noodles are famous across America and Australia as well.

Further, Italian food, pasta is very famous across America and Australia. Particularly, the pasta variant called Spaghetti is quite similar in shape when compared to ramen.

India and Nepal

9. If the new CEO would like to introduce a new ramen recipe in the Nepal and India markets, what recommendations would you make to him? (4marks) (max 300 words)

For this purpose, a Pivot table has been created with ramen varieties available in each country and average star rating for each variety and style. It can be seen that while in India, 39 varieties are available in two styles; cup and pack; in Nepal, only 14 varieties are available and that too only in pack style.

Another Pivot table was created with ramen brands available in each country and average star rating for each variety and style. It can be seen that while in India, 9 brands are present; in Nepal, only 1 brand is available.

Also, overall average star rating for ramen is 3.37 in India and 3.52 in Nepal.

Hence, it can be seen that very few brands and styles are available in this country though there seems to be demand as indicated by star rating averages.

Hence, it can be recommended that the CEO can take up to introduce new ramen recipe in India and Nepal. The lack of styles and varieties can be leveraged to capture market share.

Dashboards

1. Show three dashboards: 1. Which country has the most reviews? 2. Which country has the fewest reviews? 3. Which consumer ratings did consumers click that apply to all countries? (2 marks) (max 100 words)

The country which has the most reviews is Japan with 606 reviews as seen in above Bar chart.

The countries which have the least reviews (only 1 review) are Portugal, New Zealand, Philippines, and the UK as seen in above Bar chart.

Each country has different ratings and there is no particular star rating that has been clicked by consumers in all the countries.\

Additional Fields

10. Due to the limited data on the review spreadsheets, what other fields would you recommend adding to the spreadsheet to provide more precise information to Mr. Hajita to help him to find out about ramen’s poor review? And what sort of data or information do you think Mr. Hajita must know before he executes his strategic plan to discontinue an old ramen product and launch a new ramen product? Justify which countries need a new ramen flavour launch?  (2 marks) (max 100 words)

Additional variables that can be added for purpose of better analysis include:

1. Vegetarian or Non Vegetarian – Some countries such as India have vast populations that are strictly vegetarian. Hence, ti might be an important parameter.
2. Availability – Some varieties may be good in quality but not easily available in the market and hence, may be performing badly. Hence, ease of availability is important due to so many substitutes in the market.
3. Suggestions by consumers – Some countries or cultures may exhibit unique taste buds and hence, the variants need to be adjusted accordingly. This feedback from the customer can help in improving the performance.
4. Quantitative Data – Data such as market price, volume sold and total sales, discounts etc. are the actual data that indicate revenue and profitability of ach variant. This needs to be included.

The countries that must be targeted should be the ones which are historically known to have ramen eating population, such as Japan or, countries that have such population but very few brands and styles, such as, Nepal.

Conclusion

From the above analysis, it can be seen that ramen market is large with multiple varieties and brands available across the globe. However, certain countries have large number of options while some have none. It can also be seen that there is marked preference for certain brands, styles etc. in each region.

Such data, along with quantitative data can be used by to take strategic decisions regarding expansion to a new market, introduction of new recipes and variants or introduction of new styles.