PROJECT SUMMARY

Cyclistic, a successful bike-share company, is planning to design marketing strategies aimed at converting casual riders into annual members.

In order to do that, however, they need to better understand how annual members and casual riders differ, why casual riders would buy a membership, and how digital media could affect their marketing tactics.

BUSINESS TASK

Define differences between the bike usage of annual members and casual riders.

Why would casual riders buy Cyclistic annual memberships?

How can Cyclistic use digital media to influence casual riders to become members?

LIMITATIONS

For the purpose of this portfolio project and due to Rstudio memory constraints, a random, unbiased sample has been extracted from the original data frames. The sample size is 1/10th of the original data.

Demographic information (age and gender) is only available for subscribers and not for casual riders, also referred to as customers.

Every ride has a unique code (primary key) and we do not have a customer identification code; therefore we can only analyze the age and gender distribution according to the number of rides, rather than for the number of individuals.

SOURCE AND MANIPULATIONS

The data has been made available by Motivate international Inc. under this this agreement LINK.

Removal of outliers for age 85+ and trip duration. Refer to full Cyclistic Portfolio Project document for more information.

High Season

54.10%

Mid Season

26.70%

Low Season

19.20%

2019 BIKE RENTAL FREQUENCY

2019 AVERAGE TRIP DURATION

AVERAGE TRIP DURATION (MIN.)- SUBSCRIBERS

AVERAGE TRIP DURATION (MIN.)- CUSTOMERS

AVERAGE MONTHLY TRIPS- SUBSCRIBERS

AVERAGE MONTHLY TRIPS- CUSTOMERS

AVERAGE TRIP DURATION (MIN.)- CUSTOMERS VS SUBSCRIBERS

TRIP DURATION AND NUMBER OF RIDES- CUSTOMERS VS SUBSCRIBERS

Customers Bike Rental, Weekend

63.85%

SUBSCRIBERS BIKE RENTAL, WEEKDAYS

64.04%

BIKE RENTALS PER DAY OF THE WEEK

BIKE RENTAL FREQUENCY PER TIME OF THE DAY

AVERAGE AGE

34.9

AVERAGE AGE FEMALE

34.1

AVERAGE AGE MALE

35.8

AGE AND GENDER DISTRIBUTION

GENDER DISTRIBUTION, SUBSCRIBERS

AGE DISTRIBUTION, SUBSCRIBERS

SEASONALITY, NUMBER OF TRIPS

The busiest months are June to September, accounting for 54.10% of yearly rentals. In April, May and October bikes are still fairly well booked, with 26.70% of rides, while low season goes from November to March, with 19.20%.

SEASONALITY, BIKE RIDES IN HOURS

Subscribers rent fairly consistently throughout the year, while the number of hours of rented bikes for customers fluctuates strongly.

FREQUENCY VS DURATION

Subscribers use the bike service over four times more often than customers, with an average monthly frequency of 24099 versus 5394. However, on average customers rent the bike for twice the duration of subscribers. The mean monthly durations are 20.1 and 11.6 minutes respectively.

WEEKDAYS VS WEEKENDS

Customers predominantly rent over the weekend, with 63.85% of their rides performed on a Saturday or Sunday. In contrast, subscribers mostly rent Monday to Friday. 64.04% of subscribers’ rentals are on a weekday.

TIME OF THE DAY

Customers utilize the bike rental service mainly in the late afternoon, accounting for half of the daily rides. Other popular times are early afternoon and evening, with about 15% each. Subscribers also predominantly rent in the late afternoon, but unlike customers there is a good share of late morning rentals (~25%).

AGE AND GENDER

The average age of subscribers is 34.9. Most rides are made by male subscribers in their late 20s to early 40s. Female subscribers tend to be slightly younger than the male counterparts, with respective ages of 34.1 and 35.8 . The bike rental distribution for 2019 is as follows: 68.79% males, 22.70% females, 8.51% unknown (customers).

WHY WOULD CASUAL RIDERS BUY CYCLISTIC ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS?

• The predominance of weekday bike rentals, the earlier rides shorter rides and lesser seasonality suggests that subscribers use the bike service for their commute, while customers rent the bikes for leasure.

• In order for the membership to be attractive for casual riders, they would need to have an incentive to use the bikes more frequently in their day-to-day lives.

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HOW TO USE DIGITAL MEDIA TO INFLUENCE CASUAL RIDERS?

• Social media could be used to promote a healthy lifestyle, showcasing influencers commuting to work in any season and weather.

• Cyclistic could cooperate with sports gear companies and create a campaign to promote all-year bike commuting.

• They could run challenges, competitions and promotions on social media, rewarding bike commuters and engaging existing and potential subscribers.

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OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

• Cyclistic could partner with local companies and offer cheaper yearly memberships to their employees.

• The company could also partner with local health and fitness clubs and offer attractive memberships for their members. This is particularly true for female clubs, since the majority of subscribers is male and this could be an effective way to make bike rentals attractive for women as well.

• They could also work with high schools and colleges to try to attract younger subscribers, since currently most rides are performed by subscribers aged between 20 and 40.

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