RSS Centre for Statistical Education The University of Nottingham Nottingham NG7 2RD Phone: +44 (0) 115 951 4911 Fax: +44 (0) 115 951 4951

CONTENTS
 

Background to MBI

What MBI look for

Techniques used at MBI

Observations of prospective Graduate Statisticians

Values of a work placement

What MBI does for Graduates

Summary
 
 


 

MILLWARD BROWN INTERNATIONAL

•  
  The Millward Brown Mission

  To help our clients build profitable brands and services through research based consultancy. We aim to achieve this by a commitment to constant innovation in our:

      professional skills

      understanding of clients’ business

      research products

  We are committed to being the world-wide leader in understanding and communicating the effect of advertising and marketing activity.
   
   

  
   
   
  MBI has many corporate clients from the fields of Grocery, Alcoholic Drinks, Household Products, Household Durables, Health and Beauty Aids, Pharmaceutical, Retailers, Tralvel and Transport, Services, Publications, Petrol/Oil, Motor, Computers, Communications, Building Societies, Banks, Credit Cards, Insurance.
   

  Millward Brown International specialises in TV advertising research.
  Branded products that have been internally developed to understand this are:
   

  • LinkTM
  • Advance Tracking Program (ATP)
  • FORCE Modelling
  • BrandDynamicsTM

    Millward Brown is also responsible for producing the music charts via C.I.N
 

    The products previously mentioned help understand certain aspects of a
    brands health

    To understand more about brand drivers requires further detailed
    analyses
 
 

    This is where the Statistics department comes in.

    The department has grown rapidly as the business has grown

    Six of the team members have been with MBI for less than 2 years

    The department can also draw on the help and advice from outside of the
    department

•  

  COURSES STUDIED BY MEMBERS OF THE STATISTICS DEPARTMENT
   

  •     BSc Applied Statistics (Sheffield Hallam University)
  •     MSc Applied Statistics (Sheffield Hallam University)
  •     Mathematics Statistics & OR (UMIST)
  •     Statistics & Economics (Southampton University)
  •     Mathematics (De Montfort University)
  •     Multi-skilled section

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  TECHNIQUES USED AT MBI

  Sample Issues

  • Sampling methods
  • Sample sizes
  • Weighting data
  • Rolling data

  Summarising Data

  • Measures of central tendency
  • Measures of dispersion
  • Histograms
  • Pie Charts
  • Confidence Intervals

   
  Describing Brands

  • Correspondence Analysis
  • Brand Image Profiles (MBI)
  • Brand Usage Profiles (MBI)
  • Repertoire Analysis

  Relationships Between Measures

  • Derived Importance (Jaccard’s)
  • Correlation
  • Regression
  • Multiple regression
  • Logistic regression
  • Scatter Charts
  • Anova/Ancova
  • Rank Correlation

   
  Levels of Factors

  • Brand Price Trade Off
  • Conjoint / Trade Off
  • Gabor Granger

  Technical Points

  • Logits and Logs
  • Diminishing returns

  Questionnaire Issues

  • Question Types
  • Scoring rating scales

  Significance Testing

  • T-Tests
  • The Shift Test
  • Norms significance testing
  • Chi Square / Goodness of Fit
  • Correlation Significance Testing

  Analysis of Sales Data

  • Lead / Lag Analysis (cross correlations)
  • Econometric Modelling
  • Sales Response Modelling (Market level modelling)

  Segmentation

  • Cluster Analysis
  • Hierarchical Cluster Analysis
  • Principal Components Analysis
  • Factor Analysis
  • CHAID
  • Discriminant Analysis

  Software

  • SPSS
  • SAS
  • Neural Networks (4-Thought / Clementine)

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  OBSERVATIONS OF PROSPECTIVE GRADUATE STATISTICIANS
   

  • “Graduates think about formulas”
  • Need to expand this further in the application to real data
  • Need to think about the problem and understand which techniques can answer it
  • Limited in relevant working experience

   
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  VALUES OF A WORK PLACEMENT
   

  • Most of the Statisticians within MBI have attended a sandwich course
  • Actively recruit placement students
  • Provides invaluable experience, not just statistically but also for personal development
  • Application of theory becomes focused
  • Placement students who have worked with MBI have gone on to achieve high standards at degree level

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  WHAT MBI DOES FOR GRADUATES

  Statistical Training

  • Promotes mentor coaching
  • Offers additional external training where needed
  • Share statistical learnings at monthly meetings

  Other Training

  • MBI also offers graduates other courses. These include time management,
  • presentational skills and organisational skills

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  SUMMARY

  We currently find graduates to be lacking in:

  • Application of theory
  • Use of real data
  • Relevant working experiences
  • Questioning results

  Ideally we’d like graduates to:

  • Understand the problem they’re attempting to answer
  • Determine the techniques available to answer these
  • Have more relevant working experience
  • Thoroughly interrogate the results they have produced

   
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Please email rsscse@ntu.ac.uk with any comments or corrections.