Memorandum

To: Aimee McFarland, Supervisor

From: Ian Wilkinson, Intern
Date: February 13, 2018
Re: Recommendations for New Marketing Strategies

Per your request, I have reviewed and analyzed credit card data from 25,000 of our American Express Taiwanese
customers and have useful information that would help to boost our marketing effectiveness. After analyzing this
data, I recommend adjusting our marketing strategies to target more women and intensify these marketing strategies
in the fall months when customers spend more. This memo will provide data and explain the advantages of targeting
more women customers and will also focus on further implementing these strategies in the fall months.

Data Analysis

Profitable Female Targeting

After analyzing the data and testing to see if there was a difference in credit limits between males and females, I
believe targeting more females over males would improve our marketing effectiveness and increase revenues. In
order to determine if there was a difference in limits between males and females, I conducted a difference of means
t-Test. Because the test statistic (“t-Statistic”) was larger than the critical value (t Critical two-tail”) I was able to
confirm there was indeed a difference in spending limits. In addition, because the P-value is so low, we can confirm
these findings are nearly 100% certain. After confirming there was indeed a difference in spending limits between
males and females, I then compared the difference of means which showed that women credit limits are about $213
more than men per month. In order to capitalize on these findings, I suggest we spend more time and money to
develop new marketing strategies that target women customers as it is clear they spend more. Targeting more
women instead of men would help American Express increase revenues and profits because women are much more
easily inclined to spend money. Although allocating more resources such as time and money to develop new
marketing strategies would increase our advertising budget, we would likely see an increase in revenues and profits
due to the fact that women spend more.

Males vs. Female Spending Data

The data provided below compares credit limit differences of our 25,000 customers in Taiwan based on gender and
shows how I derived my calculations. I compared the “t-Stat” and “t Critical two-tail” to confirm the difference in
limits.

t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Unequal Variances

Limit (F) Limit (M)

Women credit limits about
Mean 5571.180589 5358.099379 $213 more per month than
Variance 17010749.15 20097324.96 men.
Observations 15084 9916
Hypothesized Mean
Difference 0
df 19957
t Stat 3.793852541
P(T<=t) one-tail 7.43827E-05 P-value being so low
t Critical one-tail 1.644929983 indicates these findings with
P(T<=t) two-tail 0.000148765 nearly 100% certainty.
 t Critical two-tail 1.960082861
Ian Wilkinson

Revenue Generating Months

In addition to implementing more marketing strategies targeting women, I believe we should implement these new
strategies the most in the fall months when customers spend the most. To confirm that customers spend the most in
the fall months I conducted the same style t-Test as above except this time I was comparing spending between April
and September. Because my test statistic was larger than my critical value I confirmed spending differed between
the months of April and September and that our customers spent about $400 more in September than they did in
April. The P-value being zero in the data indicates these findings are 100% accurate. Our customers clearly spend
more towards the end of the year as compared to spending much less at the beginning of the year. To capitalize on
these findings, we should increase our advertising budget and develop new marketing strategies during the fall
months when our customers are more easily susceptible to spend more. Although expenses would increase due to
the fact that we would increase the amount we advertise, I would expect customer spending to increase thus,
increasing our revenues and driving higher profits.

September vs. April Data

The data provided below compares the spending differences of our 25,000 customers in Taiwan based on the
specific month. In this case we used September and April. This also shows how I derived my calculations using the
“t- Stat” and the “t Critical two-tail”.

t-Test: Paired Two Sample for Means

September April Spending is higher in

Mean 1679.199687 1280.187291 September than April by
Variance 5767344.801 3829807.051 about $400.
Observations 25000 25000
Pearson Correlation 0.80641053
Hypothesized Mean
Difference 0
df 24999
t Stat 44.41960255
P(T<=t) one-tail 0
t Critical one-tail 1.644914582
P-value being zero indicates these
P(T<=t) two-tail 0 findings are 100% accurate.
t Critical two-tail 1.960058884
Ian Wilkinson

This memo provided data and explained the differences in credit limits between men and women and also verified
our customers spend more in the fall months than compared to the spring. After analyzing my findings, I suggest we
spend more time and resources on developing new marketing strategies to attract women and further implement
these strategies in the fall months when our customers spend more. I would love to have you sit down with me and
the rest of the marketing department sometime this week so we can plan and implement these new marketing
strategies. I am available to meet Monday and Wednesday this week from 9-12. If you have any questions in the
mean time please contact me at iwilkinson@email.arizona.edu. I look forward to meeting with you soon!