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How to solve these market sizing quantitative question?

estimation Guesstimate Market sizing quantitative analysis
New answer on Mar 15, 2021
7 Answers
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Anonymous A asked on Mar 13, 2021

Hi,

How would you solve the next market sizing question:

- How many liters of beer is sold during a (international) soccer game?

I would take the following steps:

  • Estimate total number of attendants (+ - 50 000)
  • Segment into different categories according to generations 10 - 20 (assume: 12,5 % of attendants) 20 - 40 (assume 37,5 % of attendants) 40 - 60 (assume 37,5 % of attendants) 60 - 80 (assume: 12,5 % of attendants)
  • Next segment each generation into three categories: big (beer) consumers (avg 4 pints), normal beer consumers (avg 2), no consumer (avg 0)
  • Adapt percentage of big , normal and no consumer according to category (10-20 has more big consumers than 60-80 category)
  • 1 pint = 0,30L x number of pints consumed by all categories

Do you think this approach is structured and logical? Or would you calculate this in another way?

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Best answer
Raj
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replied on Mar 14, 2021
FREE 15MIN CONSULTATION | #1 Strategy& / OW coach | >70 5* reviews |90% offers ⇨ prep-success.super.site | MENA, DE, UK

There are many similar questions with useful answers on preplounge already, like below:

  • https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-would-you-go-about-calculating-how-many-solar-panels-are-used-in-a-country-9320
  • https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-would-you-estimate-the-market-size-for-vegan-shampoos-in-the-uk-9150
  • https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/b2b-market-sizing-no-b2c-8982
  • https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-market-size-the-opportunity-for-stripe-9290
  • https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-many-wealthy-people-are-in-the-uk-8819

Fundamentally the structure and approach will be equivalent in all these cases and in the example you have stated above.

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Denis
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replied on Mar 13, 2021
Goldman Sachs Investment Banker NYC | Ex-Bain 5 yrs| MBA Chicago Booth | Passed > 13 MBB > 20 IB interviews

Looks like one way to solve it with one specific idea of segmenting the population in the stadium. Important for you to force yourself to think about other possible segmentations (e.g. first a layer of country A and country B participants perhaps with different preferences for beer). The approach is the important part, not really the precise numbers.

Also important, whatever number you get, please sense-check it. Make sure to just be able to tell the interviewer why your number could too high or too low. This can be done by stress-testing your numerous assumptions or by quickly testing an entire different approach (in this case you used a bottom-up population-based approach, however there are always supply-based (top-down) approaches too, such as estimating how many beer stations there are in the stadium). You could for example try to calculate how much money now is made with your beer or what volume we are talking about in terms of barrels or truck loads. If youre numbers reveal you earn a high double-digit MILLION USD in beer revenues for a regular game, i.e. XX USD per visitor, you know you are likely too high for instance).

Most important - as any case interview, market estimations require you to have a DISCUSSION with the interviewer (on your approach, variables / assumptions, your math, your result, and the sense-check, potential next steps to improve the quality of the result). Do not just pick one approach and engange in a 20 minute monologue.

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Anonymous replied on Mar 14, 2021

This does make sense, just one comment:

In the last bullet you write 1 pint = 0.3L - this is something you will want to specify with the interviewer. A US pint (assuming you're looking at US given the use of the word "Soccer") is closer to 0.5L that to 0.3L; UK pints are even larger.

So this one factor has the potential to double your results - which is a significant difference in this context.

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Ian
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replied on Mar 14, 2021
#1 BCG coach | MBB | Tier 2 | Digital, Tech, Platinion | 100% personal success rate (8/8) | 95% candidate success rate

Hi there,

This is a good approach in terms of structure/breakdown.

The only point where you've "failed" a bit is in your "reasoning/judgements" category. 10-20 year olds cannot drink, let alone are they big drinkers!

18 is the minimum age to drink in Europe for example, so only 1/5 of your category here could even drink! Furthermore, they don't have much money, so, if they do drink, it will all be before the game (and with bottles snuck in)!

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Gaurav
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replied on Mar 14, 2021
#1 MBB Coach(Placed 750+ in MBBs & 1250+ in Tier2)| The Only 360 coach(Ex-McKinsey + Certified Coach + Active recruiter)

Hey A!

Your approach is a good one. But be sure to include some measurement errors to estimate exceptional cases and show that you consider the case from all points of view. That will help you to earn some extra points.

Sounds good?

GB

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Udayan
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replied on Mar 14, 2021
Top rated Case & PEI coach/Multiple real offers/McKinsey EM in New York /12 years recruiting experience

Your approach makes sense. Account for legal age of drinking and religious beliefs if applicable and similarly account for other competing beverages. Other than that the trick with these is to not make it complicated.

Udayan

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Clara
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replied on Mar 15, 2021
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

I think it makes a lot of sense, congrats :) Well articulated

Perhaps one thing that I would say to win extra points would be to include the beer of the poeple who will watch this broadcasted (e.g., bars, their own homes...) Or at least mentioning it to the interviewer, so they know you are on top of multiple workstreams

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

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Raj gave the best answer

Raj

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