Advertising Experiments at RestaurantGrades Net Present Value (NPV) / MBA Resources

Introduction to Net Present Value (NPV) - What is Net Present Value (NPV) ? How it impacts financial decisions regarding project management?

NPV solution for Advertising Experiments at RestaurantGrades case study

At Oak Spring University, we provide corporate level professional Net Present Value (NPV) case study solution. Advertising Experiments at RestaurantGrades case study is a Harvard Business School (HBR) case study written by Michael Luca, Weijia Dai, Hyunjin Kim. The Advertising Experiments at RestaurantGrades (referred as “Rg Advertising” from here on) case study provides evaluation & decision scenario in field of Communication. It also touches upon business topics such as - Value proposition, Marketing, Negotiations, Social platforms.

The net present value (NPV) of an investment proposal is the present value of the proposal’s net cash flows less the proposal’s initial cash outflow. If a project’s NPV is greater than or equal to zero, the project should be accepted.

NPV = Present Value of Future Cash Flows LESS Project’s Initial Investment

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Case Description of Advertising Experiments at RestaurantGrades Case Study

This exercise provides students with a data set consisting of results from a hypothetical experiment, and asks students to make recommendations based on the data. Through this process, the exercise teaches students to analyze, design, and interpret experiments. The context is an experiment in a hypothetical restaurant review company called RestaurantGrades (RG) whose main source of revenue comes from advertising. Like Yelp and TripAdvisor, RG advertisements are shown above the organic search results when someone searches on the page. RG is trying to understand whether its current advertising package is effective in practice. To do this, RG has run an experiment with two treatment arms and a control group of restaurants. The control group has no advertising, the first treatment arm consists of giving restaurants RG's current advertising package, and the second treatment arm is an alternative package that RG designed with a different approach to consumer targeting. Students are given the data to analyze, and asked to make a recommendation about which, if either, advertising package is effective.

Case Authors : Michael Luca, Weijia Dai, Hyunjin Kim

Topic : Communication

Related Areas : Marketing, Negotiations, Social platforms

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Calculating Net Present Value (NPV) at 6% for Advertising Experiments at RestaurantGrades Case Study

Years	Cash Flow	Net Cash Flow	Cumulative     Cash Flow	Discount Rate @ 6 %	Discounted Cash Flows
Year 0	(10000224)	-10000224	-	-
Year 1	3444717	-6555507	3444717	0.9434	3249733
Year 2	3973953	-2581554	7418670	0.89	3536804
Year 3	3962420	1380866	11381090	0.8396	3326924
Year 4	3247585	4628451	14628675	0.7921	2572391
TOTAL			14628675		12685853

The Net Present Value at 6% discount rate is 2685629

In isolation the NPV number doesn't mean much but put in right context then it is one of the best method to evaluate project returns. In this article we will cover -

Different methods of capital budgeting

What is NPV & Formula of NPV,
How it is calculated,
How to use NPV number for project evaluation, and
Scenario Planning given risks and management priorities.

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Capital Budgeting Approaches

Methods of Capital Budgeting

There are four types of capital budgeting techniques that are widely used in the corporate world –

1. Internal Rate of Return
2. Net Present Value
3. Profitability Index
4. Payback Period

Apart from the Payback period method which is an additive method, rest of the methods are based on Discounted Cash Flow technique. Even though cash flow can be calculated based on the nature of the project, for the simplicity of the article we are assuming that all the expected cash flows are realized at the end of the year.

Discounted Cash Flow approaches provide a more objective basis for evaluating and selecting investment projects. They take into consideration both –

1. Magnitude of both incoming and outgoing cash flows – Projects can be capital intensive, time intensive, or both. Rg Advertising shareholders have preference for diversified projects investment rather than prospective high income from a single capital intensive project.
2. Timing of the expected cash flows – stockholders of Rg Advertising have higher preference for cash returns over 4-5 years rather than 10-15 years given the nature of the volatility in the industry.

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Formula and Steps to Calculate Net Present Value (NPV) of Advertising Experiments at RestaurantGrades

NPV = Net Cash In Flowt1 / (1+r)t1 + Net Cash In Flowt2 / (1+r)t2 + … Net Cash In Flowtn / (1+r)tn
Less Net Cash Out Flowt0 / (1+r)t0

Where t = time period, in this case year 1, year 2 and so on.
r = discount rate or return that could be earned using other safe proposition such as fixed deposit or treasury bond rate. Net Cash In Flow – What the firm will get each year.
Net Cash Out Flow – What the firm needs to invest initially in the project.

Step 1 – Understand the nature of the project and calculate cash flow for each year.
Step 2 – Discount those cash flow based on the discount rate.
Step 3 – Add all the discounted cash flow.
Step 4 – Selection of the project

Why Communication Managers need to know Financial Tools such as Net Present Value (NPV)?

In our daily workplace we often come across people and colleagues who are just focused on their core competency and targets they have to deliver. For example marketing managers at Rg Advertising often design programs whose objective is to drive brand awareness and customer reach. But how that 30 point increase in brand awareness or 10 point increase in customer touch points will result into shareholders’ value is not specified.

To overcome such scenarios managers at Rg Advertising needs to not only know the financial aspect of project management but also needs to have tools to integrate them into part of the project development and monitoring plan.

Calculating Net Present Value (NPV) at 15%

After working through various assumptions we reached a conclusion that risk is far higher than 6%. In a reasonably stable industry with weak competition - 15% discount rate can be a good benchmark.

Years	Cash Flow	Net Cash Flow	Cumulative     Cash Flow	Discount Rate @ 15 %	Discounted Cash Flows
Year 0	(10000224)	-10000224	-	-
Year 1	3444717	-6555507	3444717	0.8696	2995406
Year 2	3973953	-2581554	7418670	0.7561	3004879
Year 3	3962420	1380866	11381090	0.6575	2605355
Year 4	3247585	4628451	14628675	0.5718	1856817
TOTAL					10462458

The Net NPV after 4 years is 462234

(10462458 - 10000224 )

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Calculating Net Present Value (NPV) at 20%

If the risk component is high in the industry then we should go for a higher hurdle rate / discount rate of 20%.

Years	Cash Flow	Net Cash Flow	Cumulative     Cash Flow	Discount Rate @ 20 %	Discounted Cash Flows
Year 0	(10000224)	-10000224	-	-
Year 1	3444717	-6555507	3444717	0.8333	2870598
Year 2	3973953	-2581554	7418670	0.6944	2759690
Year 3	3962420	1380866	11381090	0.5787	2293067
Year 4	3247585	4628451	14628675	0.4823	1566158
TOTAL					9489512

The Net NPV after 4 years is -510712

At 20% discount rate the NPV is negative (9489512 - 10000224 ) so ideally we can't select the project if macro and micro factors don't allow financial managers of Rg Advertising to discount cash flow at lower discount rates such as 15%.

Acceptance Criteria of a Project based on NPV

Simplest Approach – If the investment project of Rg Advertising has a NPV value higher than Zero then finance managers at Rg Advertising can ACCEPT the project, otherwise they can reject the project. This means that project will deliver higher returns over the period of time than any alternate investment strategy.

In theory if the required rate of return or discount rate is chosen correctly by finance managers at Rg Advertising, then the stock price of the Rg Advertising should change by same amount of the NPV. In real world we know that share price also reflects various other factors that can be related to both macro and micro environment.

In the same vein – accepting the project with zero NPV should result in stagnant share price. Finance managers use discount rates as a measure of risk components in the project execution process.

Sensitivity Analysis

Project selection is often a far more complex decision than just choosing it based on the NPV number. Finance managers at Rg Advertising should conduct a sensitivity analysis to better understand not only the inherent risk of the projects but also how those risks can be either factored in or mitigated during the project execution. Sensitivity analysis helps in –

What can impact the cash flow of the project.

What will be a multi year spillover effect of various taxation regulations.

Understanding of risks involved in the project.

What are the key aspects of the projects that need to be monitored, refined, and retuned for continuous delivery of projected cash flows.

What are the uncertainties surrounding the project Initial Cash Outlay (ICO’s). ICO’s often have several different components such as land, machinery, building, and other equipment.

Some of the assumptions while using the Discounted Cash Flow Methods –

Projects are assumed to be Mutually Exclusive – This is seldom the came in modern day giant organizations where projects are often inter-related and rejecting a project solely based on NPV can result in sunk cost from a related project.

Independent projects have independent cash flows – As explained in the marketing project – though the project may look independent but in reality it is not as the brand awareness project can be closely associated with the spending on sales promotions and product specific advertising.

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Negotiation Strategy of Advertising Experiments at RestaurantGrades

References & Further Readings

Michael Luca, Weijia Dai, Hyunjin Kim (2018), "Advertising Experiments at RestaurantGrades Harvard Business Review Case Study. Published by HBR Publications.