SIMULATION DESCRIPTION: As the manager of TriState Dairies market research department, you need to determine what to do with the Dairies' surplus milk.

You earned 69 percent.

Background

TriState Dairies is a food processor that packages and sells dairy products. At present their core business is selling 1) pasteurized, skimmed, and plain milk, and 2) yogurts and yogurt drinks. They want to expand their market, particularly for milk. They can easily convert surplus milk production to the production of flavored milks. At the moment the flavored milks sales overall are low and the market small. The bulk of flavored milks are sold to parents who buy them for children. The marketing department thinks that there may be untapped markets for flavored milks in adults. In particular they think that it will be possible to sell milk to health-conscious adults as a healthier alternative to soda and energy drinks. TriState wants to know if this idea could work.

Your role is that of a manager within the market research department. You have been tasked with gathering the data.

First Steps

You consider the situation, roll up your sleeves and get to work. What should be the first steps you take in obtaining the information you need in order to solve TriState's problem?

YOU CHOSE OPTION 1
Examine the secondary sources you have at hand (public and internal databases) in order to establish exactly what data you already have and what data you need to obtain.

You got off to a good start by choosing to define the problem before you started examining data or seeking new information.

Preparing For Your First Meeting

You go to your in-house database which shows trends in the sales of all TriState's pasteurized milk products over the last 10 years. You examine this data, and apply some preliminary statistical analysis in order to help decide where to go next.