Fun-sized, Chocolate Candy Bars: A Survey and Analysis i
Fun-sized, Chocolate Candy Bars: A Survey and Analysis Prepared for Dr. Sims Kathryn Farmer Yilman Koo Meesha Thomas Lezlee Sharp October, 2013 i
Table of Contents Introduction..1 Methods...1 Results..2 Conclusions..3 Recommendations...4 ii
Introduction Our purpose for this report is to determine the best chocolate candy bar choice for homeowners purchasing candy bars for trick-or-treaters on Halloween. We included eight chocolate bars in our study: Twix, 3 Musketeers, Kit-Kat, Snickers, Mounds, Almond Joy, Milky Way, and Butterfinger. We narrowed our field to these eight by requiring the candy be chocolate sold at our local Wal-Mart store available in a fun size sold in full bags of the individual candy as opposed to a variety bag. This report compares the candy bar selections based on three ranked criteria. We will provide the results of our study and our recommendation for the best candy bar to purchase for Halloween. Methods We identified 3 criteria on which we would evaluate our candy bar options. The three criteria are: price per unit amount of candy in bar child preference To identify price per unit, we purchased bags of each type of candy bar and divided the cost of the bag by the number of chocolate bars in the bag. We determined the amount of candy bar per bar by measuring the weight of each unwrapped candy bar. For child preference, we conducted a survey at a local elementary school. We polled 57 children between the ages of 6 and 10 and asked them which of the 8 options available they would most like to receive. The children were only allowed to choose one type. The 8 types of candy bars were represented on a half sheet of paper. Each type was shown in both its wrapped and unwrapped state. The children circled their preference on the half sheet of paper. The candy bars were arranged on the paper so that they were all very close in size to ensure that the children were not making their choice based on the size of the candy bar. We presented the options visually to the children because we recognized that they are more likely to recognize the candies by their labels than by their name alone. After we gathered all data, we created a ranking system. We determined that the most important criterion is child preference. The second most important criterion is price per unit. The third most important criterion is amount of candy per bar. Scores for child preference are multiplied by 3. Scores for price per unit are multiplied by 2. Scores for amount of candy in bar are left at base value. The products with the best score received the highest ranking while the products 1
with the worst score received the lowest ranking. Best is determined as products with the lowest cost per unit, the greatest volume of candy per bar, and the most preferred by children. Results The following tables show our raw results for each of the three criteria. For analyzed data, see the conclusion section. The green highlighted cells represent the bar which performed the best in that particular category. The grey highlighted cells represent the bars which performed the worst. Type of Candy Bar Price/Bar Twix $ 0.13 Almond Joy $ 0.15 Kit Kat $ 0.13 Butterfinger $ 0.15 Snickers $ 0.19 Mounds $ 0.15 Milky Way $ 0.14 3 Musketeers $ 0.13 Table 1 Price per unit Table 1 shows that Twix, Kit Kat and 3 Musketeers were all tied for the best price at $0.13. The candy bar with the highest price per bar was Snickers at $0.19. Snickers is an outlier at $0.19/candy bar. Milky Way is a very close second at $0.14. Type of Candy Bar Weight Twix 16 g Almond Joy 17 g Kit Kat 14 g Butterfinger 18.5g Snickers 17g Mounds 17g Milky Way 17g 3 Musketeers 15g Table 2 candy per unit Table 2 shows that the candy bars are all mostly comparable in size Butterfinger candy bars do have the most mass, but are only 4 grams heavier than the smallest bar, Kit Kat. This confirms our assertion that this is the least significant criteria. 2
Type of Candy Bar # of children who selected this option Twix 12 Almond Joy 0 Kit Kat 18 Butterfinger 9 Snickers 0 Mounds 0 Milky Way 3 3 Musketeers 15 Figure 3 Child preference When we surveyed the children to determine their preference we found overwhelming preference for three candies: Kit Kat, 3 Musketeers and Twix. Kit Kat was the most preferred at 18 votes out of 57. Three of our options (Almond Joy, Snickers and Mounds) received no votes from the children we surveyed. Conclusion We analyzed our results based on our ranking system. Once again, we have 3 criteria for our recommendation and they have different weights: Child Preference (x3) Price per Unit (x2) Amount of Candy in Bar (x1) Child preference is the most important criterion because children are the target demographic for Halloween candy. We weighted price above amount of candy because we know that money is an important factor for homeowners and because the difference in the weight of the bars is negligible. Table 4 shows the non-weighted points each candy bar obtained from the results. The bar(s) which performed best were given a rank of 8. Notice that in the child preference category, Almond Joy, Snickers and Mounds all have a rank of 3. This is because they are all tied for last place with 0 votes in our child preference study. Similarly, Twix, Kit Kat and 3 Musketeers all have a rank of 8 in the price per unit category because they all had the same price and cost less than the other options. We then took the raw rankings, and weighted them (see Table 5). Because child preference has the highest weight, we multiplied the ranks in this category by 3. Price per unit was our second most important criteria, so we multiplied it by 2. Amount of candy in bar was the least important criterion, so we did not add any weight to the scores in this category. 3
Child Preference Price per Unit Amount of Candy in Bar Twix 6 8 3 Almond Joy 3 4 7 Kit Kat 8 8 1 Butterfinger 5 4 8 Snickers 3 3 7 Mounds 3 4 7 Milky Way 4 5 7 3 Musketeers 7 8 2 Table 4 Non-weighted Points Child Preference (Rank x3) Amount of Candy in Bar (Rank x1) Price per Unit (Rank x2) Twix 24 16 3 43 Almond Joy11 9 8 7 24 Kit Kat 24 16 1 41 Butterfinger 15 8 8 31 Snickers 9 6 7 22 Mounds 9 8 7 24 Milky Way 12 10 7 29 3 Musketeers 21 16 2 39 Table 5 Weighted Points Total Points After weighting and adding the scores, we found that Twix has the highest number of points with a score of 43. Twix had the highest score in both the child preference and price per unit categories. Kit Kat is a close second. It ties with Twix in the two most important categories, but scored slightly lower in the candy per bar category. The lowest scoring bar is Snickers. Snickers had the lowest score in both the child preference and price per unit category. Recommendation Based on our findings, we recommend purchasing Twix bars to hand out to trick or treaters this year. Twix bars are cost effective and our survey showed that children prefer them over other types of candy. If homeowners do not want to buy Twix, we suggest that they consider Kit Kat bars as these are equally cost efficient and received the same score on our child preference survey. We strongly recommend that when purchasing Halloween candy, homeowners should avoid Snickers, Mounds and Almond Joy. These three bars received the lowest scores and out of the 57 children surveyed, not a single child selected any of these candy bars as ones they would prefer. 4