Created by Professor Tom Davenport, renowned thought leader on big data, this single-player simulation teaches students the power of analytics in decision-making. Acting as the brand manager for a laundry detergent, students are tasked with turning around the brand's performance by using sophisticated analytic techniques to understand current issues and determine the best strategy for improving performance. Students will be asked to predict market demand, set the channel price, make formulation decisions, determine promotional spending strategy, and communicate their strategy effectively to their managers. The simulation makes use of actual consumer data informed by a multinational consumer goods company. Seat time is 60-90 minutes. A Teaching Note contains an overview of theory, simulation screens, and reference materials.
Company: Harvard Business Publishing
Approximate price: $15.00
Playtime: 1 hour 15 minutes
Learning objectives: Illustrating that understanding some of the underlying factors and segments in data helps develop a coherent marketing approach over several years- Showing that analytics and decision-making are iterative processes and after each new decision there is typically new data to analyze and understand- Suggesting that successful financial performance is the result of several possible, and combinations, of factors-rarely does a single variable explain an outcome- Communicating that all predictions and forecasts are based on probabilistic assumptions resulting in a range of possible results.
Link to simulation home page: https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/7050-HTM-ENG