Preface

This learning material is based on my teaching notes for the Marketing Analytics course using R course (MKTG4000) at CSUB and some additional cases/projects developed in collaboration with professionals from other disciplines. The free resource is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

More about me:

My website:

https://github.com/utjimmyx

My teaching evals:

https://github.com/utjimmyx/teaching_evaluations

My Marketing Analytics/Programming Repository:

rpubs.com/utjimmyx

https://github.com/utjimmyx

https://public.tableau.com/profile/zhenning.xu#!/

Marketing Analytics Meetup Group:

https://www.meetup.com/valley-data-analytics-using-r-meetup-group/

A list of companies hiring for business analytics / data analytics positions (actively updated):

Anheuser-Busch InBev https://abinbev.taleo.net/careersection/
Bombora https://bombora.com/about/bombora-careers/
Canva https://about.canva.com/careers/
Chewy.com https://www.chewy.com/jobs 
Citadel https://www.citadel.com/careers/
Colgate-Palmolive https://jobs.colgate.com/search/
Daugherty Business Solutions https://careers.daugherty.com/
Insperity https://careers.insperity.com/
iHeartMedia https://iheartmedia.dejobs.org/jobs/
Factual https://www.factual.com/company/careers/
Fullstory https://www.fullstory.com/jobs/
Lionsgate https://jobs.lionsgate.com/go/View-All-Openings/8023300/
Medtronic https://jobs.medtronic.com/jobs/search
Samsung https://www.samsung.com/us/careers/
Snowflake https://www.snowflake.com/about/careers/
Stitch Fix https://www.stitchfix.com/careers/jobs
Weight Watchers https://www.weightwatchers.com/us/corporate-careers
Upwork https://careers.upwork.com/homepage
US Cellular https://www.uscellular.jobs/
Walmart https://careers.walmart.com/technology/data-science-and-analytics / https://www.ziprecruiter.com/c/Walmart/Jobs/Data-Analyst
The Walt Disney Company https://jobs.disneycareers.com/
Tesla  https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/data-analyst-at-tesla-1894527752?utm_campaign=google_jobs_apply&utm_source=google_jobs_apply&utm_medium=organic

Recommended certificates and courses

Additional Resources

A non-conclusive list of popular consulting or solution agencies in the marketing industry:

Introduction

Welcome to Business Analytics!

Today’s bushiness and organizations have oceans of data available, but incapable of making sense of it while business decision-making become more and more data-informed.

As a non-programmer (or a learner who only touch based on Excel before), you will learn how to become a customer-first business professional with analytics acumen.

The number one complaint of undergraduate or graduate students is that they haven’t acquired a marketable “skill” coming out of college. They also complain that friends and roommates in other business majors are having an easier time getting a job. If you feel this way, you’re in luck, as this bootcamp should help.

The bootcamp is centered on the business decision-making process—including problem formulation, data collection, data scraping, quantitative data analysis, text data analysis, and interpretation of results.

Data is the new oil, and data analytics is the new engine. With the amount of data available in today’s economy, every business could potentially benefit from becoming more data-informed.

Jobs, marketing jobs, and marketing analytics jobs!

Recently, the American Marketing Association (AMA) reports that the percentage of marketing budgets companies plan to allocate to analytics over the next three years will increase from 5.8% to 17.3%—a whopping 198% increase (Harvard Business Review, 2018). You may visit indeed.com to explore different careers that are available to students who have “analytics” skills. For instance, a recent report by Digitaldetroit suggests that about 99% of the recent marketing jobs require “analytics & reporting” skills (Digitaldetroitllc, 2021).

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the demand for data science skills will drive a 27.9 percent rise in employment in the field through 2026. Not only is there a huge demand, but there is also a noticeable shortage of qualified data scientists (Miller, 2020).

Ref: Kelsey Miller, June 4, 2020. 11 Data Science Careers Shaping Our Future. https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/data-science-careers-shaping-our-future/ .

Ref: Remote Digital Marketing Jobs: What We Learned Looking at 100 Posts (2021 Update). https://digitaldetroitllc.com/2021/07/27/remote-digital-marketing-jobs-what-we-learned-looking-at-100-posts-2021-update/.

knitr::include_graphics("Analytics_post_2022.PNG")
Job growth: Employment projections for marketing research analysts - US Bureau of Labor Statistics:2016-2026
Job growth: Employment projections for marketing research analysts - US Bureau of Labor Statistics:2016-2026

Please do not confuse “analytics” with “statistics” though. “Analytics” is a general skill that is one of the most in-demand skills (LinkedIn 2021). That said, you will find many job titles that are designed for data analysts who understand how to collect data, analyze data, present the results, and make data-informed decisions. However, statistics is a subject or area that is focused on understanding predictions, modeling, and algorithms. The demand for analytics professionals is way higher than it is for “statisticians.” See the following two charts for more details.

knitr::include_graphics("analytics_jobs.PNG")
Job growth: Employment projections for marketing research analysts- HBR(2018)
Job growth: Employment projections for marketing research analysts- HBR(2018)
The number of job posts that include analyst (indeed.com, 2022
The number of job posts that include analyst (indeed.com, 2022
The number of job posts that include statistics(indeed.com, 2022
The number of job posts that include statistics(indeed.com, 2022

Reference:Jobs on the Rise in 2021

https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/resources/talent-acquisition/jobs-on-the-rise-us LinkedIn Jobs on the Rise 2022: The 25 U.S. roles that are growing in demand.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-jobs-rise-2022-25-us-roles-growing-demand-linkedin-news/

What did my previous students say about their learning experience

“After completing the competition, I hope to use the experience from using R studio to perform analysis and apply the knowledge in future work. My primary focus would be to build a company that focuses on media and animation. Using the same procedures and process we did in the competition will be virtual in my future business plans.”

“Through trial and error, this was achieved but the learning experience is what made it the most exciting for me.”

“This in turn has helped me enrich myself in one of the most popular programming languages, R (R Studio), and learn how to work with others. This could not have been completed without the proper guidance and assistance of both my group mates, as well as Dr. Xu who has helped us tremendously throughout this competition and has given us a new skill that can help us further ourselves into our careers,” “I had a “good time” and “made some amazing connections and friendships.”

Ref: CSUB teams win top prizes in National Marketing Research/Analytics Competition https://news.csub.edu/csub-teams-win-top-prizes-in-national-marketing-researchanalytics-competition

Ref: CSUB marketing students participate in data visualization competition - Student takes home award from CSU Channel Island’s Plot-A-Thon https://news.csub.edu/csub-marketing-students-participate-in-data-visualization-competition

Ref: CSUB’s first team participated in 2021 Virtual Business Analytics Competition - School of Business and Public Administration students put their skills to the test with virtual competition https://news.csub.edu/csubs-first-team-participated-in-2021-virtual-business-analytics-competition

What makes this bootcamp unique?

This bootcamp will also introduce you to the current state-of-the-art programming technology for business analytics, R. Currently, only about 10% of the business schools (MIT, Stanford, University of Zurich, UC Berkeley, John Hopkins, Northwestern, etc.) teach students R for business/marketing analytics. However, the demand for business students with background or knowledge in R or Python is quite high. You might want to do some Google search to see which companies are using R for marketing analytics.

This course has two guiding principles. The first is that analytics is only useful to the extent that they help solve managerial problems. The second is that you have to get your hands dirty. That said, our time will be spent on a combination of lecture, discussion, and hands-on exercises. These activities will be focused by a set of discussion questions that will be given to students in separate electronic handouts.

By the end of the bootcamp, students will be able to conduct basic analytics needed in today’s business environments as well as be able to identify the usefulness of analysis conducted by others.

Why analytics?

Analytics is a necessary step for making business decisions. Therefore, regardless of industry, professionals need to know how to perform strategic analysis or analytics properly as well as be able to recognize appropriate methodologies and sound techniques given a business objective at hand.

Why R?

R is a tool that lets you perform data analytics in an unique way. Companies are increasingly adopting R or Python as their primary tool for data analytics due to their unique qualities, such as being free, easy to share, and capable of handling big data and machine learning.Watch the following video to help you understand why R is so useful for marketers and business professionals: A Simple Introduction to R for Market Researchers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWHKZPJ3HTk

If you are wanted to be a financial analyst, here is a very good resource for you to start using R for financial analysis: https://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/ruey-s-tsay/research/an-introduction-to-analysis-of-financial-data-with-r

What are other benefits of learning R?

The skills you learn will help you find real world usage immediately. Lastly, it’s crucial to understand that R offers capabilities beyond traditional statistical analysis. For instance, you can engage in automated tasks such as machine learning algorithms and big data analytics, as well as develop APIs and apps using R and R Shiny.

What companies are using R?

Below is a partial list of Fortune 500 companies utilizing R Shiny for reporting and marketing analytics.See if you can find any of your favorite companies or brands that are using R for marketing analytics.

Reference: Which companies use R. https://www.quora.com/Which-companies-use-R

R is real data science software, which, with the language Python, dominate data science, the real stuff. You might want to check out the following resources for key topics or case studies presented during the class.

See an interactive App I designed years ago: http://rpubs.com/utjimmyx/nlpapp. With some appropriate training, you can do it as well.

How is marketing different from decades ago?

To succeed in the current economic environment, a company must have a sustainable competitive advantage so it will be: (1) the first choice of its customers when they buy, (2) the first choice of its employees when they decide where to work, and (3) the first choice of its investors when they decide to invest their capital. This course builds on strategic marketing that affect a firm’s competitive advantage, and demonstrates how managers can formulate a strong position in the market by: (1) asking the right questions, (2) making the right decisions, and (3) efficiently and effectively implementing their strategic decisions.

In this class I will blend external interactive reading modules via my own R repository, rpubs.com/utjimmyx and other sites (https://bookdown.org/, https://github.com/xiaoguozhi/R-for-Marketing-Research-and-Analytics, R for Data Science, etc.) where you will read state-of-the-art marketing research topics and applications prior to each session. Then in each class I’ll spend the first part of class reviewing the key issues and answer any burning questions. Then you will break up into defined small groups and work together to complete a mini-project prior to the end of class. Thus, the majority of class time will be spent practicing and applying what you learned outside of the classroom.

All content in this course leads toward the project you are interested in developing as a part of your final project portfolio.

Software

Most statistical analyses will be demonstrated using R instead of Excel.

I suggest that you have Excel, R, and R Studio installed on your own laptop in case you want to have a better learning experience.

Special note: I have developed a set of computer routines based on the data science software R available at rpubs.com/utjimmyx. The examples usually provide precisely the analyses needed for this course, and for which support and examples are provided.

Subject to Change Statement

**Schedule and assignments are subject to change as our course moves forward. Students are expected to regularly check the Blackboard course area for announcements and updates about the course. Students are also expected to check their email accounts daily for any announcements, changes, etc.

Getting started with R Studio Cloud

Please watch the following 6-min YouTube video - Intro to R Studio Cloud - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK1Va_UWQFc

Install R & RStudio if you can (For users who would like to use R for more than 15 hours per month)

Session 1 - Introduction:

What does our target market look like? Why are some potential customers not choosing us? What exactly does our ideal customer desire? And just how extensive is our target market anyway? Furthermore, could a website with a superior landing page achieve higher conversion rates compared to a traditional one? These questions form the core of what drives people into the realms of marketing, marketing research, and marketing analytics.

Research design serves as the blueprint outlining a researcher’s approach to addressing empirical questions, detailing both the methods and data (how) and the theoretical background and literature review (why) informing the study.

Research Objectives & Limitations:

Is our research exploratory, descriptive, causal, or explanatory in nature? A controlled experiment, as defined by Thoughtco (2019), involves isolating one variable while keeping all others constant between a control and experimental group. In a “true” experiment, random assignment occurs, whereas in a natural or quasi-experiment, units aren’t randomly assigned to groups.

Practical constraints can include ethical concerns, scarcity of data, time limitations, financial constraints, and biases such as conformity bias and social desirability effect. Sampling errors also arise when a sample inaccurately reflects the population, impacting the study’s reliability.

Figuring out causal relationships

Identifying causal relationships involves considering associative variation, the time sequence of events, and eliminating confounding factors.

A cafe owner’s marketing research problem:

Imagine a cafe owner skeptical about whether customers can differentiate between diet and regular soft drinks. To address this, the owner plans to study customer perceptions (Peter 2019), leading to the subsequent discussion questions.

Critical thinking questions:

Among Wednesday customers, does the taste rating for diet vs. regular lemonade differ? Or do the percentages of customers preferring each type differ? How could observational studies aid in answering these questions? How could experimental studies address the cafe owner’s doubts? What type of experimental study—natural or quasi—would be most suitable? Compare advantages, disadvantages, similarities, and differences between experimental and observational studies. Which study approach do you think would yield superior results, and why?

Running Code using R Quarto

Quarto is a “multi-language, next generation version of R Markdown from RStudio, with many new features and capabilities. Like R Markdown, Quarto uses Knitr to execute R code, and is therefore able to render most existing Rmd files without modification.”

When you click the Render button a document will be generated that includes both content and the output of embedded code.

You can embed code like this:

1 + 1
## [1] 2

You can add options to executable code like this

## [1] 4

The echo: false option disables the printing of code (only output is displayed).

what do I learn in day 1?