The Bike Share Case Study is the capstone assignment of the Google Data Analytics Certificate. Its completion marks my successful conclusion of the course and helps showcase some of the skills I have obtained.

Scenario

This case study simulates a supposed real-life assignment of a marketing analyst at the fictional company Cyclistics, which offers bike-share service in the Chicago area. In the Google Data Analytics Certificate Program, the description of the scenario was provided in writing and is repeated below. In completing this case study using more recent data, it appears some of the statements in the description - such as the available bike types and the number of stations within the network - are no longer valid.

In 2016, Cyclistic launched a successful bike-share offering. Since then, the program has grown to a fleet of 5,824 bicycles that are geotracked and locked into a network of 692 stations across Chicago. The bikes can be unlocked from one station and returned to any other station in the system anytime.

Until now, Cyclistic’s marketing strategy relied on building general awareness and appealing to broad consumer segments. One approach that helped make these things possible was the flexibility of its pricing plans: single-ride passes, full-day passes, and annual memberships. Customers who purchase single-ride or full-day passes are referred to as casual riders. Customers who purchase annual memberships are Cyclistic members.

Cyclistic’s finance analysts have concluded that annual members are much more profitable than casual riders. Although the pricing flexibility helps Cyclistic attract more customers, Lily Moreno - the Director of Marketing - believes that maximizing the number of annual members will be key to future growth. Rather than creating a marketing campaign that targets all-new customers, Moreno believes there is a very good chance to convert casual riders into members. She notes that casual riders are already aware of the Cyclistic program and have chosen Cyclistic for their mobility needs.

Moreno has set a clear goal: Design marketing strategies aimed at converting casual riders into annual members. In order to do that, however, the marketing analyst team needs to better understand how annual members and casual riders differ, why casual riders would buy a membership, and how digital media could affect their marketing tactics. Moreno and her team are interested in analyzing the Cyclistic historical bike trip data to identify trends.

Assignment

The Assignment of this case study was also detailed in writng in the Certificate program and is repeated below:

Three questions will guide the future marketing program:

  1. How do annual members and casual riders use Cyclistic bikes differently?
  2. Why would casual riders buy Cyclistic annual memberships?
  3. How can Cyclistic use digital media to influence casual riders to become members?

Moreno has assigned her marketing analyst (i.e., me) the first question to answer: How do annual members and casual riders use Cyclistic bikes differently?

Process Overview

For this case study, the historical Ridership Record of Cyclistics is examined to provide insights about its bike-sharing service in the Chicago area. In specific, the differences in the usage of the bike-share service between casual and member riders are explored. These insights would supposedly help inform the upcoming marketing campaign.

The case study is carried out in four steps. First, the necessary raw data from Cyclistics is downloaded and cleaned (1). The cleaned data is then transformed (2) and visualized (3) to address relevant aspects of Cyclistics’ ride-share service. Finally, the insights are documented in a final report (4).

All steps of the case study are carried out using the programming language R due to its ease of use, versatility, cost efficiency, as well as the high availability of communities and resources. The execution of each step is documented in detail in the corresponding tabs of this website.