Creating Categories

Scenario:
WidgeCorp became the market leader in snack foods after acquiring a rival company, Company W. Their management style and business decision-making differed. Employees at WidgeCorp collected relevant data and through statistical analysis used this information to draw conclusions and make appropriate recommendations. Company W tended to rely on the experience and judgment of its managers. For the time being, both companies are being managed separately, but within the next twelve months they will merge all management, processes, and accounting. You work for Company W and are a little nervous about this new way of working, but realize that you need to be able to present issues and recommendations with statistical verification to the WidgeCorp executives. You will also introduce and employ statistical analysis to the senior management of Company W's various departments such as Marketing, Sales, and Production. Part of your job will be to educate Company W as well.

One of WidgeCorp's regional sales managers contacts you with a request. In preparation for rolling out a new type of snack food, she's been trying to make sense of some demographic data available through the AMA (American Marketing Association) and is overwhelmed. She explains to you that there are two files which contain reports generated from AMA's (American Marketing Association) website. AMA's website provides free demographical services where one can choose from a variety of criteria and generate reports based on the U.S. Census decennial data obtained at the beginning of each decade. These files contain 4 reports: General Summary, Census Trend 1980 to 2000 Summary, Occupation and Employment Summary, and Income Summary. In these demographics reports the data for many of the variables is distributed into many different categories. For example, there are 7 different categories for Educational Attainment in the General Summary Report and 20 categories for Employment by Industry in the Occupation and Employment Summary Report. Help this regional sales manager see a smaller number of comprehensible categories.

Using all four demographic reports: (Overview, Trend, Employment, and Population Detail) for zip code 60614, choose four variables (including at least one from each report) and explain how you would collapse the categories and why.