Every year American corporations spend billions of dollars on advertising, trying to make their products "household" names. In this lesson students conduct a market analysis by surveying members of their community about popular advertising slogans. They will then determine if there is any correlation between slogan recognition and the corporation’s economic performance.

This lesson is designed for an economics class, but it would also make an excellent project for a statistics class.

Students should know how to access a given web site on the Internet and also be able to conduct a search for specific information. They should have knowledge of basic financial terms such as those that would be used on a company’s quarterly or yearly report.

Design a questionnaire to gather information about public awareness of company slogans.

Distribute the questionnaire using a random sample of respondents.

Make charts, graphs or tables to summarize the results of the questionnaire.

Search the Internet to obtain information about a company’s economic success.

Decide what factors are relevant in rating a company’s economic success.

Decide how to compare companies of different sizes.

Create a scatterplot of company economic performance versus slogan recognition.

Determine whether slogan recognition is an indicator of a company’s performance.

The class will compile a list of 10 - 15 (about half the number of students in the class) popular advertising slogans to be used in a survey and also decide what relevant personal questions (if any) to ask, such as age, gender, occupation, etc. Since students will be looking up the balance sheets of these companies, try to use slogans of companies that are publicly traded. If time does not permit, the instructor may just choose slogans from the sample questionnaire included in this lesson.

Before distributing the questionnaires, the class should discuss how they might go about getting a representative selection of respondents (a random sample). For example, if they just ask their friends or families to complete the questionnaire, results may be biased. It would be better to randomly pick respondents. Remember, each student will be asking only about 10 to15 people to complete the questionnaire. (About 250 to 300 returns would be desirable.) We will want to assume that this selection of people is representative of everyone. Hence we want to avoid picking a biased or "special" group of people. If students are not acquainted with random sampling methods, the instructor might go over the procedures in the "Picking a Random Sample" overhead. The class should decide how they will obtain their sample and also discuss why their sampling method may not be really random.

After all (or most) questionnaires are returned, students will tally the results. They should make a bar graph showing how many people recognized each slogan. They can also break down the responses by age, gender, occupation, etc., if this information was collected. The class should then discuss this information. They can answer questions such as:

Are there any companies whose slogan nearly everyone recognized?

Are there any companies whose slogan is nearly unknown?

What are the three "top" companies? Or the three "bottom" companies?

Can you classify the companies into three to five groups according to degree of slogan recognition? (For example, "well-recognized", "average", "hardly-known".)

Are there differences according to age or gender in type of slogan recognized?

Can you see any characteristics of slogans that are well-known?

What factors, besides just the slogan, affect how well it is known? (For example, how often it is advertised, the length of the commercial, the music that goes with it, whom the slogan is directed towards, etc.)

The next step in the project is to discuss what kind of data to collect about each of the companies in order to evaluate their economic performance. Company financial reports or stock records may be useful in deciding what data to collect. Also, this data may need to be adjusted for the size of the company. For example, if we use "total yearly earnings" to evaluate the economic performance of a company, large companies would show a much better performance than small ones. "Earnings per share", however, would take the size of the company into account. The instructor should show overheads of typical company reports (see attached). The class should make a list of data to collect about each company.

Pairs of students should each be assigned one company to research on the Internet. They should try to find all data in the list compiled by the class. After all students have obtained their data, the class should make graphs comparing the economic data they collected with slogan recognition data. They should then describe significant correlations (if there are any).

One way to decide if two variables are correlated is to make a "scattergram". This is a graph that shows the values of two variables for each item. For example, if we want to see if "Earnings per share" and "Percent of slogan recognition" are related, we would make a graph plotting the points (Earnings, Percent) for each company. If these points seem to follow some line or curve, then we would conclude that the variables are somehow related. If the points are more or less randomly scattered in our graph, this would indicate that the two variables are not related. If students are not familiar with making and interpreting scattergrams, the instructor may use the "Interpreting Scattergrams" overhead.

Evaluation will be based on participation in class discussion, distribution and return of the survey questionnaires, summary of survey results by graphs and charts (Survey Results Worksheet), successful compilation of the student’s company data (Company Report Worksheet), and report on final data analysis (Slogan Recognition and Company Performance Worksheet). Students or groups of students may make a poster showing final results as an extra credit project. 

Students could write to the companies they studied and send a copy of class results. Perhaps the company would be able to provide some data showing the extent of the success of its slogan from the company’s point of view.

Instead of having each student complete the "Survey Results" and the "Slogan Recognition and Company Performance" Worksheets, students may do these in small groups or as a whole-class activity.

The entire group of individuals that we want information about is called our population.

Question: If we want information about an entire population, why not get that information from all individuals in our population?

Answer: Usually it is too time-consuming or too expensive or too difficult to get this information from the whole population.

Question: What is the population we are interested in for our survey?

Answer: All people in our companies’ marketing areas.

Question: Will we be able to get a sample from this population?

Answer: No. We will only be able to get information from some people in our community. We will assume that name recognition in our community is very similar to name recognition in the whole population to whom our companies market their products.

Question: Do you think that slogan recognition of the people in our community is about the same compared to all people in our companies’ market areas?

Answer: Perhaps. Perhaps not. Our community may have a different representation of residents or the companies may advertise differently in our community.

Question: Is it all right to apply results we get from a sample to the whole population?

Answer: Only if the sample is representative of the whole population. Our sample should not be biased or in some way "special".

Question: How can we obtain a "representative" sample of the population?

Answer: We must pick individuals in our sample randomly from the population.

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A random sample of a population is a set of individuals from that population that have been chosen in such a way that every individual in that population has the same chance of being selected.

Question: How can we find a random sample of individuals from a population?

Answer: All of the members of the population must somehow be listed or named or numbered. Then you choose a name or number "by chance". For example, write each name or number on a piece of paper, put all the pieces of paper into a box, shaking very well, then draw out one of these pieces of paper without looking. If the individuals of your population are numbered, you could use the random number function on a calculator or computer or you could use a random number table given in any statistics book.

Question: How should we find a random sample of individuals from our community?

Answer: There is only one correct way to do this. All members of our community must somehow be numbered; then pick random numbers using calculator, computer or random number table. Unfortunately, it is often just about impossible to find or make a list of the whole population. So we try to find an "approximate" random sample.

There are many different ways to do this. For example:

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When we wish to see if two variables are somehow related we often will make a scattergram. For example, is the height of a person related to the person’s weight? It seems so, since the taller a person is, the more we would expect that person to weigh. In order to show there is a relationship and also what kind of a relationship, we will measure the height and weight of a large number of people and then make a graph of height versus weight. If the points seem to follow some sort of pattern, we would hypothesize that the two variables are related.

Some examples of scattergrams and hypotheses we might make are the following.

The variables x and y may be linearly correlated (follow a line). Also, x and y are positively related (as x increases, y increases).

The x and y variables also seem to be correlated in this graph. It seems as x increases to about 5 or 6, y also increases; however as x becomes larger than 6, y decreases. The relationship seems to be somewhat "parabolic" or "quadratic".

The variables x and y do not seem to be correlated in this graph. There is no particular pattern; the points seem randomly scattered around. We would not be able to predict the value of y, given the value of x, with any accuracy.

Please take a few minutes to fill out this survey for our Economics (Statistics) class at ______ High School. We are trying to see if companies make more money if they have a good slogan. If you have some questions about this project, please call our teacher _______ at _______.

Gender (please circle): Male / Female

Age (please circle): 18 or under, 19-29, 30-45, 45-60, over 60

FILL IN THE BLANK with the name of the company represented. No list of company names will be provided, so answer only those you recognize. Please do not ask help from anyone else. We are interested in which slogans you yourself recognize.

________________________________ "Rolling back prices."

________________________________ "Breakfast of Champions."

________________________________ "Now that’s a great idea."

________________________________ "I love your style."

________________________________ "Everyday people."

________________________________ "Supermarket to the world."

________________________________ "They’re grrrrrr-eat"

________________________________ "The choice of a new generation."

________________________________ "Making good food better."

________________________________ "The quicker picker upper."

________________________________ "The store for you."

________________________________ "Take pictures. Further."

________________________________ "Where do you want to go today."

________________________________ "You’re in good hands."

________________________________ "Come see the softer side."

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Make a histogram of the above percents for the companies you chose.

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If you also asked some personal data such as name, age, etc., make tables showing these results. For example, if age were asked, you would complete the following table.

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1. Which company did you research?

2. List the information your class decided to collect about each company. What was the data for your company?

3. List all the Internet sources you used to obtain the information above.

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1. Choose one economic indicator from the list compiled by the class to describe company economic performance. Why did you choose this indicator?

2. Make a scattergram of the economic indicator you chose in #1 versus percent of recognition using class data from all the companies.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Economic Indicator _______________________

4. Does the above economic indicator and slogan recognition percent seem to be correlated? Why or why not? If these two variables seem to be correlated, describe the relationship in words.

5. Pick one other economic indicator, make a scattergram of it versus slogan recognition percent and decide if these two variables seem to be correlated. Show your graph and explain your conclusions.

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Please take a few minutes to fill out this survey for our Economics (Statistics) class at ______ High School. We are trying to see if companies make more money if they have a good slogan. If you have some questions about this project, please call our teacher _______ at _______.

Gender (please circle): Male / Female

Age (please circle): 18 or under, 19-29, 30-45, 45-60, over 60

FILL IN THE BLANK with the name of the company represented. No list of company names will be provided, so answer only those you recognize. Please do not ask help from anyone else. We are interested in which slogans you yourself recognize.

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Make a bar graph of the above percents for the companies you chose.

Percent

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1. Which company did you research?

Shopko

2. List the information your class decided to collect about each company. What was the data for your company?

3. List all the Internet sources you used to obtain the information

http://www.stocksheet.com

http://www1.zacks.com

http://webapp.abcnews.com

http://www.i-soft.com

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1. Choose one economic indicator from the list compiled by the class to describe company economic performance. Why did you choose this indicator?

Revenue percent change. Because this indicates if the company is doing better or selling more this year than last year. We want to see if the advertising increased sales.

2. Make a scattergram of the economic indicator you chose in #1 versus percent of recognition using class data from all the companies.

4. Does the above economic indicator and slogan recognition percent seem to be correlated? Why or why not? If these two variables seem to be correlated, describe the relationship in words.

It doesn’t seem that there is any definite correlation. The points are scattered somewhat haphazardly.

5. Pick one other economic indicator, make a scattergram of it versus slogan recognition percent and decide if these two variables seem to be correlated. Show your graph and explain your conclusions.

Microsoft is an outliner with profit margin = 31 and percent recognition = 20% and is not shown on this graph. There does not seem to be any definite correlation.