What is the difference between data, information, and knowledge? In your opinion, when does data become information and information become knowledge? Support your answer with relevant examples. Why is meaningful and correct data analysis—statistics—important in using the volumes of available business data?

Justify your answers with examples and reasoning.

2. Assume you are a marketing analyst working for a manufacturer of ready-to-eat cereal. You are given detailed sales data for the past year and asked to create a report showing the differences between the four sales regions (north, south, east, and west) in terms of sales volume, profitability, and changes in sales volume and profitability; marketing expenditures and changes in marketing expenditures; and per capita sales and marketing expenditures.

What type of data is the sales data you are working on? What specific statistical techniques and charts would you use to depict differences, specifically addressing each of the categories constituting your report? Why?

Justify your answers with examples and reasoning.

3. You are analyzing the cross-store sales of a grocery store chain. As part of your analysis, you compute two measures of central tendency—mean and median. The mean sales are $358.4 million, and the median sales are $163.1 million (per store).