Global Tech LED:Google Analytics Instant Activation of Remarketing

Company description: Headquartered in Bonita Springs, Florida, Global Tech LED is a LED lighting design and supplier to U.S. and international markets, specializing in LED retrofit kits and fixtures for commercial spaces.

How Google Analytics is being used:

Google Analytics’ Smart Lists were used to automatically identify Global Tech LED prospects who were “most likely to engage”, and to then remarket to those users with more targeted product pages.

Google’s Conversion Optimizer was used to automatically adjust potential customer bids for increased conversions.

Value proposition:

Remarketing campaigns triggered by Smart Lists drove 5 times more clicks than all other display campaigns.

The click-through rate of Global Tech LED’s remarketing campaigns was more than two times the remarketing average of other campaigns.

Traffic to the company’s website grew by more than 100%, and was able to re-engage users in markets in which it was trying to make a dent, including South Asia, Latin America, and Western Europe.

Use of the Conversion Optimizer allowed Global Tech LED to better allocate marketing costs based on bid potential.

Questions:

1. Google analytics is a typical Web mining application. What type of Web mining is it? Please explain why you think so. [5 marks]

2. When using Google Analytics’ Smart Lists to analyse which users are more likely to engage, what data will be used as input? Please name at least three types of data. [5 marks]

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You have been recruited by a former classmate, Susanna Wu, to join the finance team of a company that she founded recently. The company produces a unique product line of hypoallergenic cosmetics and relies for its success on an aggressive marketing program. The company is in a start-up phase and therefore has no significant history of expenses and revenues upon which to rely for budgeting and planning purposes. Given the restriction on available funds (most of the available capital has been used for new-product development and to recruit a management team), the control of costs, including marketing costs, is thought by the management team to be essential for the short-term viability of the company.

You have held a number of intensive discussions with Susanna and John Thompson, director of marketing for the firm. They have asked you to prepare an estimated budget for marketing expenses for a month of operations.

You are provided with the following data, which represent average actual monthly costs over the past three months:

Your discussions with John and Susanna indicate the following assumptions and anticipated changes regarding monthly marketing expenses for the coming year:

• Sales volume, because of aggressive marketing, should increase by 12%.
• To meet competitive pressures, sales prices are expected to decrease by 6%.
• Sales commissions are based on a percentage of sales revenue.
• Sales staff salaries, because of a new hire, will increase by 12%, regardless of sales volume.
• Because of recent industrywide factors, rates for telephone and mailing costs, as well as delivery charges, are expected to increase by 9%. However, both of these categories of costs are variable with sales volume.
• Rent on the office building is based on a 2-year lease, with 19 months remaining on the original lease.
• Gas utility costs are largely independent of changes in sales volume. However, because of industrywide disruptions in supply, these costs are expected to increase by 17%, regardless of changes in sales volume.
• Depreciation on the office furniture used by members of the sales staff should increase because of new equipment that will be acquired. The planned cost for this equipment is $28,800, which will be depreciated using the straight-line (SL) method, with no salvage value, over a 4-year useful life.
• Because of competitive pressure, the company plans to increase the cost of marketing consultants by $4,500 per month.

Required:

1. Based on the preceding information, what is the percentage change, by line item and in total, for items in your budget? (Round percentage answers to 2 decimal places. i.e. 0.1234 should be considered as 12.34%.)

2. The management team is worried about the short-term financial position of the new company. Given the strain on available cash, the president has expressed a desire to keep marketing expenses over the next few months to a maximum of $363,000. Discussions with the marketing department indicate that telephone and mailing costs are the only category, in the short run, that can reasonably bear the planned-for reduction in marketing costs. The budget you have prepared includes an assumed 9% increase in telephone and mailing costs. What must this percentage change (positive or negative) be in order to achieve targeted monthly marketing costs? (Hint: The Goal Seek function in Excel can be used to calculate the percentage changes, which can be found under Data, then What-If Analysis.)  (Negative amounts should be indicated by a minus sign. Round percentage answers to 2 decimal places. i.e. 0.123 should be considered as 12.30%)

***PLEASE SHOW ALL WORK IN A WORKING NOTE. ITS IMPORTANT FOR ME TO UNDERSTAND HOW YOU ANSWERED THIS QUESTION. THANK YOU! *****

You have been recruited by a former classmate, Susanna Wu, to join the finance team of a company that she founded recently. The company produces a unique product line of hypoallergenic cosmetics and relies for its success on an aggressive marketing program. The company is in a start-up phase and therefore has no significant history of expenses and revenues upon which to rely for budgeting and planning purposes. Given the restriction on available funds (most of the available capital has been used for new-product development and to recruit a management team), the control of costs, including marketing costs, is thought by the management team to be essential for the short-term viability of the company.

You have held a number of intensive discussions with Susanna and John Thompson, director of marketing for the firm. They have asked you to prepare an estimated budget for marketing expenses for a month of operations.

You are provided with the following data, which represent average actual monthly costs over the past three months:

Your discussions with John and Susanna indicate the following assumptions and anticipated changes regarding monthly marketing expenses for the coming year:

• Sales volume, because of aggressive marketing, should increase by 12%.
• To meet competitive pressures, sales prices are expected to decrease by 6%.
• Sales commissions are based on a percentage of sales revenue.
• Sales staff salaries, because of a new hire, will increase by 12%, regardless of sales volume.
• Because of recent industrywide factors, rates for telephone and mailing costs, as well as delivery charges, are expected to increase by 9%. However, both of these categories of costs are variable with sales volume.
• Rent on the office building is based on a 2-year lease, with 19 months remaining on the original lease.
• Gas utility costs are largely independent of changes in sales volume. However, because of industrywide disruptions in supply, these costs are expected to increase by 17%, regardless of changes in sales volume.
• Depreciation on the office furniture used by members of the sales staff should increase because of new equipment that will be acquired. The planned cost for this equipment is $28,800, which will be depreciated using the straight-line (SL) method, with no salvage value, over a 4-year useful life.
• Because of competitive pressure, the company plans to increase the cost of marketing consultants by $4,500 per month.

Required:

1. Based on the preceding information, what is the percentage change, by line item and in total, for items in your budget? (Round percentage answers to 2 decimal places. i.e. 0.1234 should be considered as 12.34%.)

2. The management team is worried about the short-term financial position of the new company. Given the strain on available cash, the president has expressed a desire to keep marketing expenses over the next few months to a maximum of $363,000. Discussions with the marketing department indicate that telephone and mailing costs are the only category, in the short run, that can reasonably bear the planned-for reduction in marketing costs. The budget you have prepared includes an assumed 9% increase in telephone and mailing costs. What must this percentage change (positive or negative) be in order to achieve targeted monthly marketing costs? (Hint: The Goal Seek function in Excel can be used to calculate the percentage changes, which can be found under Data, then What-If Analysis.)  (Negative amounts should be indicated by a minus sign. Round percentage answers to 2 decimal places. i.e. 0.123 should be considered as 12.30%)

***PLEASE SHOW ALL WORK IN A WORKING NOTE. ITS IMPORTANT FOR ME TO UNDERSTAND HOW YOU ANSWERED THIS QUESTION. THANK YOU! *****

The Cornchopper Company is considering the purchase of a new harvester. The new harvester is not expected to affect revenues, but pretax operating expenses will be reduced by $12,300 per year for 10 years. The old harvester is now 5 years old, with 10 years of its scheduled life remaining. It was originally purchased for $55,500 and has been depreciated by the straight-line method. The old harvester can be sold for $20,300 today. The new harvester will be depreciated by the straight-line method over its 10-year life. The corporate tax rate is 40 percent. The firm’s required rate of return is 13 percent. The initial investment, the proceeds from selling the old harvester, and any resulting tax effects occur immediately. All other cash flows occur at year-end. The market value of each harvester at the end of its economic life is zero.

Determine the break-even purchase price in terms of present value of the harvester. This break-even purchase price is the price at which the project’s NPV is zero. (Do not round intermediate calculations and round your answer to 2 decimal places, e.g., 32.16.)

what is new imperialism? and what were the causes of new imperialism ?

Wendy’s is offering a new Wolfburger as a promotional tie-in for the new sequel in the Twilight motion picture series, and wonders how much they should charge. It test-markets five different prices in the cities listed below, with the listed resultant sales (in thousands of dollars):

a.) Compute (numerically) and interpret (in words) the correlation between sales and price
b. ) Estimate the regression function between sales and price

Fibertech is deciding on opening a new plant. The new plant will be located on the existing land, which the company purchased 2 years ago for $1 million. The company has also spent $300,000 for market research.

If the plant is not opened the company will rent out the land for $200,000 per year. The expected sales of the new plant are $2.3 million per year for the next 5 years. The new plant's construction costs are $2 million (Year 0), the requirement for NWC is $200,000 in year 0, which will recover in year 5. The plant should be depreciated over 5 years using the straight-line method. Cost of sales is expected to be 40% os sales. Administrative expenses are $300,000 every year. Tax rate is 20%. What is the NPV of this project if the cost of capital is 15%?

Possible answers:

a. -$813,337

b. $527,525

c. $1,063,870

d. $428,090

e. -$437,896