BYU Hosts Marketing Analytics Competition

PROVO, Utah – Apr 10, 2015 – Brigham Young University introduced a new type of data analytics challenge when it hosted a two-day competition last month featuring five top business schools.

BYU, Michigan State University, UCLA, University of Utah and University of Virginia sent MBA student teams to compete in the final round of the inaugural 2015 Sawtooth Software Marketing Analytics Consulting Challenge held on March 20-21.

Jeffrey Dotson, BYU marketing professor and event organizer, believes the hands-on experience gave teams the chance to apply classroom knowledge in a concrete setting.

“I was most impressed by the students’ ability to translate the results of their analysis into actionable recommendations,” Dotson says. “Students often get lost in the technical and statistical weeds and fail to identify the key insights that will most benefit a company.  The students did a phenomenal job of striking the appropriate balance between technical sophistication and managerial relevance.”  

Unique from the majority of case competitions, the Sawtooth Challenge required teams to use conjoint analysis to conduct research over a period of months rather than just a few days. The task was to discover mobile features relevant to the consumer gaming segment, a current issue in the display materials and systems division at 3M. The teams designed questionnaires and discrete choice experiments based on 3M’s business objectives, deepening their understanding of conjoint analysis as they refined survey design and data collection processes.

The University of Virginia won first place in the competition followed by runner-up BYU, but panel judge Alisa Schilmoeller says the research and knowledge provided by each of the teams will be used to identify key insights on consumer methodology for current clients.

“I was really impressed with the work they’ve done,” said Schilmoeller. “I think this was a great opportunity to see how conjoint can be applied to real-life situations.”

Dennis Ngin, a member of the winning University of Virginia team, said his team focused their research efforts on the customer by studying buying processes and assessments of product attributes. After working through a number of obstacles, the Virginia team set its recommendations apart through thorough analysis and attention to detail.

“We all had a robust set of tools for our analysis, but approached the problem in many different ways.” Ngin says. “That in itself was a great learning opportunity.”

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, entrepreneurship, finance, information systems and public management. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.