We had three questions for us

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?

The first was specifically for me in my role as junior data analyst, the other two were for the marketing department in general.

Let us see whether the information in my analysis can answer these questions.

How do annual members and casual riders use Cyclistic bikes differently?

Member and Casual riders have significant profile differences that can be noted from our analysis and visualisations:

1.  Members take far more rides than Casual riders, so we are already capturing a significant proportion of the ridership base.

2. Member riders are more consistent riders, even accounting for season variations, whereas Casual riders overwhelmingly prefer warmer months.

3. Member riders consistency also reflects in daily ridership habits, while Casual riders mostly prefer to ride on the weekends.

4. Members ridership more strongly correlates to common office timings, while casual ridership is more spread-out through the day. Casual riders who *do* ride at common office timings are more likely to use it in the evening when office closes, than in the mornings when offices open.

5. Members take short trips than Casual riders, and their trips are rarely affect by chronological events, but more likely affected by budgetary constraints.

6. Members are far less likely to take round-trips than Casual riders.

7. Members are less likely to be picky about the sort of bike they get, than Casual riders.

8. Coastal stations are more popular with Casual riders, while the more inland stations are more popular with Members.

From this we can surmise that  members tend to favour more work-oriented trips while casual riders tend to orient towards leisure-oriented trips.

Why would casual riders buy Cyclistic annual memberships?

From the information we gathered, we can deduce the following strategies as being effecting in converting casual riders into members:

1. Because those casual riders match the profile of members.

There are existing casual riders that have a similar profile to members. Specifically, all the casual riders who ride at a time profile similar to members (office timings) are good options for focusing attention on, because they are already part-way to a member-style ridership, and a proper enough incentive (starter packages to incentive trying before buying) might convince them to take the leap to membership

2. They want to enjoy the summer.

Casual riders peak during the summer months; if enough are convinced that they can enjoy their summer more by biking around with perhaps a  trial membership that covers the summer months, then perhaps some of those would have liked the experience enough to convert to a full-time membership.

3. They have more options

Casual riders have shown a greater preference for electrical bikes, which indicate a willingness to use the product that causes less fatigue and extends riding range. If more electrical bikes are procured, and more electrical bikes stalls are made available, then perhaps more casual riders would be willing to convert from an occasional ridership to a more regular ridership via becoming a member.

4. Stations are better setup to suit their needs

We have seen that stations (and trips) preferred by casual riders differ from those for members. If stations and bikes are placed at locations more commonly used by casual riders, then casual riders who take those trip often would more likely to be met with an available bike when they need it; and given enough rides, they might decide to take the plunge for a membership to benefit by savings.

How can Cyclistic use digital media to influence casual riders to become members?

There wasn't a lot of information that  was present in the dataset to answer this question, but we can still make some educated guesses. We have a profile of common ridership timings and the GPS geocodes of the most popular locations with casual riders.

We can create targeted advertising online that narrowly focuses on the appropriate time-slot and locations, and be more likely to get a return, rather than blanket advertisement that is more costly and not reaching the intended audience most of the time.

Unlike regular advertisement, digital advertisements via social media etc allows us to specify locations (all phones have GPS now) and time-slots (the ad doesn't have to be "on" all the time, and we only pay for the time we are on, so we can pick and chose the times), so we have a lot of flexibility in creating targeted advertisements by utilising the information gained from the analysis.