Tutorial – Using Excel Data Forecasting Tools 

The table below shows the marketing expenditure and corresponding sales figures on a month by month basis for SM Heating Products. 

You are asked to produce an analysis of these figures for inclusion in a report to be presented to the board of directors. In doing this you will need to establish trends over the period shown for both expenditure and revenue and determine the relationship between these. This will require the use of statistical analysis tools available in Excel. 

You will need to select appropriate trend-lines and relationship functions to bring the data into an understandable form. You must justify your selection. 

Finally you should write a short summary of the technique used in the analysis and critically evaluate your results. 

Month Marketing Expenditure (£000''s) Sales (£000''s) 

Jul-08 300 530 

Aug-08 346 635 

Sep-08 834 1000 

Oct-08 723 938 

Nov-08 130 274 

Dec-08 624 793 

Jan-09 345 536 

Feb-09 768 1450 

Mar-09 464 800 

Apr-09 624 826 

May-09 270 373 

Jun-09 389 403 

Jul-09 917 1592 

Aug-09 836 1632 

Sep-09 613 804 

Oct-09 741 1064 

Nov-09 456 582 

Dec-09 246 425 

Jan-10 734 903 

Feb-10 824 946 

Mar-10 234 306 

Apr-10 423 623 

May-10 682 835 

Jun-10 234 352