Mean, Median, Mode, and

Range
Purplemath

Mean, median, and mode are three kinds of "averages". There are many "averages" in statistics, but these are,

I think, the three most common, and are certainly the three you are most likely to encounter in your pre-

statistics courses, if the topic comes up at all.

The "mean" is the "average" you're used to, where you add up all the numbers and then divide by the number

of numbers. The "median" is the "middle" value in the list of numbers. To find the median, your numbers have

to be listed in numerical order from smallest to largest, so you may have to rewrite your list before you can find

the median. The "mode" is the value that occurs most often. If no number in the list is repeated, then there is no

mode for the list.

The "range" of a list a numbers is just the difference between the largest and smallest values.

 Find the mean, median, mode, and range for the following list of values:

13, 18, 13, 14, 13, 16, 14, 21, 13

The mean is the usual average, so I'll add and then divide:

(13 + 18 + 13 + 14 + 13 + 16 + 14 + 21 + 13) ÷ 9 = 15

Note that the mean, in this case, isn't a value from the original list. This is a common result. You should not

assume that your mean will be one of your original numbers.

The median is the middle value, so first I'll have to rewrite the list in numerical order:

13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 16, 18, 21

There are nine numbers in the list, so the middle one will be the (9 + 1) ÷ 2 = 10 ÷ 2 = 5th number:
 13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 16, 18, 21

So the median is 14.

The mode is the number that is repeated more often than any other, so 13 is the mode.

The largest value in the list is 21, and the smallest is 13, so the range is 21 – 13 = 8.

mean: 15

median: 14

mode: 13

range: 8

Note: The formula for the place to find the median is "([the number of data points] + 1) ÷ 2", but you don't have

to use this formula. You can just count in from both ends of the list until you meet in the middle, if you prefer,

especially if your list is short. Either way will work.

 Find the mean, median, mode, and range for the following list of values:

1, 2, 4, 7

The mean is the usual average:

(1 + 2 + 4 + 7) ÷ 4 = 14 ÷ 4 = 3.5

The median is the middle number. In this example, the numbers are already listed in numerical order, so I don't

have to rewrite the list. But there is no "middle" number, because there are an even number of numbers.

Because of this, the median of the list will be the mean (that is, the usual average) of the middle two values
within the list. The middle two numbers are 2 and 4, so:

(2 + 4) ÷ 2 = 6 ÷ 2 = 3

So the median of this list is 3, a value that isn't in the list at all.

The mode is the number that is repeated most often, but all the numbers in this list appear only once, so there

is no mode.
The largest value in the list is 7, the smallest is 1, and their difference is 6, so the range is 6.

mean: 3.5

median: 3

mode: none

range: 6

The values in the list above were all whole numbers, but the mean of the list was a decimal value. Getting a

decimal value for the mean (or for the median, if you have an even number of data points) is perfectly okay;

don't round your answers to try to match the format of the other numbers.

 Find the mean, median, mode, and range for the following list of values:

8, 9, 10, 10, 10, 11, 11, 11, 12, 13

The mean is the usual average, so I'll add up and then divide:

(8 + 9 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 11 + 11 + 11 + 12 + 13) ÷ 10 = 105 ÷ 10 = 10.5

The median is the middle value. In a list of ten values, that will be the (10 + 1) ÷ 2 = 5.5-th value; the formula is

reminding me, with that "point-five", that I'll need to average the fifth and sixth numbers to find the median. The
fifth and sixth numbers are the last 10 and the first 11, so:

(10 + 11) ÷ 2 = 21 ÷ 2 = 10.5

The mode is the number repeated most often. This list has two values that are repeated three times;
namely, 10 and 11, each repeated three times.

The largest value is 13 and the smallest is 8, so the range is 13 – 8 = 5.

mean: 10.5

median: 10.5

modes: 10 and 11

range: 5

As you can see, it is possible for two of the averages (the mean and the median, in this case) to have the same
value. But this is not usual, and you should not expect it.
Note: Depending on your text or your instructor, the above data set may be viewed as having no mode rather

than having two modes, because no single solitary number was repeated more often than any other. I've seen

books that go either way on this; there doesn't seem to be a consensus on the "right" definition of "mode" in the

above case. So if you're not certain how you should answer the "mode" part of the above example, ask your

instructor before the next test.

About the only hard part of finding the mean, median, and mode is keeping straight which "average" is which.

Just remember the following:

mean: regular meaning of "average"

median: middle value

mode: most often

(In the above, I've used the term "average" rather casually. The technical definition of what we commonly refer

to as the "average" is technically called "the arithmetic mean": adding up the values and then dividing by the

number of values. Since you're probably more familiar with the concept of "average" than with "measure of

central tendency", I used the more comfortable term.)

 A student has gotten the following grades on his tests: 87, 95, 76, and 88. He wants an 85 or

better overall. What is the minimum grade he must get on the last test in order to achieve that

average?

The minimum grade is what I need to find. To find the average of all his grades (the known ones, plus the

unknown one), I have to add up all the grades, and then divide by the number of grades. Since I don't have a
score for the last test yet, I'll use a variable to stand for this unknown value: "x". Then computation to find the

desired average is:

(87 + 95 + 76 + 88 + x) ÷ 5 = 85

Multiplying through by 5 and simplifying, I get:

87 + 95 + 76 + 88 + x = 425

346 + x = 425

x = 79
 He needs to get at least a 79 on the last test.

You can use the Mathway widget below to practice finding the median. Try the entered exercise, or type in your

own exercise. Or try entering any list of numbers, and then selecting the option — mean, median, mode, etc —

from what the widget offers you. Then click the button to compare your answer to Mathway's.

management
1. The organization and coordination of the activities of a business in order to achieve defined objectives.
Management is often included as a factor of production along with? machines, materials, and money.
According to the management guru Peter Drucker (1909-2005), the basic task of management includes both
marketing and innovation. Practice of modern management originates from the 16th century study of low-
efficiency and failures of certain enterprises, conducted by the English statesman Sir Thomas More (1478-
1535). Management consists of the interlocking functions of creating corporate policy and organizing, planning,
controlling, and directing an organization's resources in order to achieve the objectives of that policy.

2. The directors and managers who have the power and responsibility to make decisions and oversee an
enterprise.

The size of management can range from one person in a small organization to hundreds or thousands of
managers in multinational companies.

In large organizations, the board of directors defines the policy which is then carried out by the chief executive
officer, or CEO. Some people agree that in order to evaluate a company's current and future worth, the most
important factors are the quality and experience of the managers.

Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a not-for-profit

organization, or government body. Management includes the activities of setting the strategy of
an organization and coordinating the efforts of its employees (or of volunteers) to accomplish
its objectives through the application of available resources, such as financial, natural, technological,
and human resources.[1] The term "management" may also refer to those people who manage an organization.
Social scientists study management as an academic discipline, investigating areas such as social
organization and organizational leadership.[2] Some people study management at colleges or universities; major
degrees in management include the Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) and Master of Business
Administration (MBA.) and, for the public sector, the Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree. Individuals
who aim to become management specialists or experts, management researchers, or professors may complete
the Doctor of Management (DM), the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA), or the PhD in Business
Administration or Management.
Larger organizations generally have three levels of managers, which are typically organized[by whom?] in
a hierarchical, pyramid structure:

 Senior managers, such as members of a Board of Directors and a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or
a President of an organization. They set the strategic goals of the organization and make decisions on how
the overall organization will operate. Senior managers are generally executive-level professionals, and
provide direction to middle management who directly or indirectly report to them.
 Middle managers, examples of which would include branch managers, regional managers, department
managers and section managers, provide direction to front-line managers. Middle managers communicate
the strategic goals of senior management to the front-line managers.
 Lower managers, such as supervisors and front-line team leaders, oversee the work of regular employees
(or volunteers, in some voluntary organizations) and provide direction on their work.

management to consist of six functions:

1. forecasting
2. planning
3. organizing
4. commanding
5. coordinating
6. controlling

According to Fayol, management operates through five basic functions: planning, organizing, coordinating,
commanding, and controlling.

 Planning: Deciding what needs to happen in the future and generating plans for action (deciding in
advance).[1]
 Organizing (or staffing): Making sure the human and nonhuman resources are put into place.[26]
 Coordinating: Creating a structure through which an organization's goals can be accomplished.
 Commanding (or leading): Determining what must be done in a situation and getting people to do it.
 Controlling: Checking progress against plans.

Basic roles[edit]

 Interpersonal: roles that involve coordination and interaction with employees

Figurehead, leader

 Informational: roles that involve handling, sharing, and analyzing information

Nerve centre, disseminator

 Decision: roles that require decision-making

Entrepreneur, negotiator, allocator

Skills[edit]
Management skills include:

 political: used to build a power base and to establish connections

 conceptual: used to analyze complex situations
 interpersonal: used to communicate, motivate, mentor and delegate
 diagnostic: ability to visualize appropriate responses to a situation
 leadership: ability to lead and to provide guidance to a specific group
 technical: expertise in one's particular functional area.
 Behavioral:Perception towards others.
Implementation of policies and strategies[edit]

 All policies and strategies must be discussed with all managerial personnel and staff.
 Managers must understand where and how they can implement their policies and strategies.
 A plan of action must be devised for each department.
 Policies and strategies must be reviewed regularly.
 Contingency plans must be devised in case the environment changes.
 Top-level managers should carry out regular progress assessments.
 The business requires team spirit and a good environment.
 The missions, objectives, strengths and weaknesses of each department must be analyzed to determine
their roles in achieving the business's mission.
 The forecasting method develops a reliable picture of the business' future environment.
 A planning unit must be created to ensure that all plans are consistent and that policies and strategies are
aimed at achieving the same mission and objectives.

Policies and strategies in the planning process[edit]

 They give mid and lower-level managers a good idea of the future plans for each department in an
organization.
 A framework is created whereby plans and decisions are made.
 Mid and lower-level management may add their own plans to the business's strategies.

Middle[edit]
Consist of general managers, branch managers and department managers. They are accountable to the top
management for their department's function. They devote more time to organizational and directional functions.
Their roles can be emphasized as executing organizational plans in conformance with the company's policies
and the objectives of the top management, they define and discuss information and policies from top
management to lower management, and most importantly they inspire and provide guidance to lower level
managers towards better performance.
Middle management is the midway management of a categorized organization, being secondary to the senior
management but above the deepest levels of operational members. An operational manager may be well-
thought-out by middle management, or may be categorized as non-management operate, liable to the policy of
the specific organization. Efficiency of the middle level is vital in any organization, since they bridge the gap
between top level and bottom level staffs.
Their functions include:

 Design and implement effective group and inter-group work and information systems.
 Define and monitor group-level performance indicators.
 Diagnose and resolve problems within and among work groups.
 Design and implement reward systems that support cooperative behavior. They also make decision and
share ideas with top managers.

Lower[edit]
Lower managers include supervisors, section leaders, forepersons and team leaders. They focus on controlling
and directing regular employees. They are usually responsible for assigning employees' tasks, guiding and
supervising employees on day-to-day activities, ensuring the quality and quantity of production and/or service,
making recommendations and suggestions to employees on their work, and channeling employee concerns
that they cannot resolve to mid-level managers or other administrators. First-level or "front line" managers also
act as role models for their employees. In some types of work, front line managers may also do some of the
same tasks that employees do, at least some of the time. For example, in some restaurants, the front line
managers will also serve customers during a very busy period of the day.
Front-line managers typically provide:

 Training for new employees

 Basic supervision
 Motivation
 Performance feedback and guidance
Some front-line managers may also provide career planning for employees who aim to rise within the
organization.

Marketing management
Marketing management is the process of developing strategies and planning for product or services,
advertising, promotions, sales to reach desired customer segment.

Structure[edit]
Marketing management employs tools from economics and competitive strategy to analyze the industry context
in which the firm operates. These include Porter's five forces, analysis of strategic groups of competitors, value
chain analysis and others.[1]
In competitor analysis, marketers build detailed profiles of each competitor in the market, focusing on their
relative competitive strengths and weaknesses using SWOT analysis. Marketing managers will examine each
competitor's cost structure, sources of profits, resources and competencies,
competitive positioning and product differentiation, degree of vertical integration, historical responses to
industry developments, and other factors.
Marketing management often conduct market research and marketing research to perform marketing analysis.
Marketers employ a variety of techniques to conduct market research, but some of the more common include:

 Qualitative marketing research, such as focus groups and various types of interviews
 Quantitative marketing research, such as statistical surveys
 Experimental techniques such as test markets
 Observational techniques such as ethnographic (on-site) observation
Marketing managers may also design and oversee various environmental scanning and competitive
intelligence processes to help identify trends and inform the company's marketing analysis.

Brand audit[edit]
A brand audit is a thorough examination of a brand's current position in an industry compared to its competitors
and the examination of its effectiveness. When it comes to brand auditing, six questions should be carefully
examined and assessed:

1. how well the business’ current brand strategy is working,

2. what the company's established resource strengths and weaknesses are,
3. what its external opportunities and threats are,
4. how competitive the business’ prices and costs are,
5. how strong the business’ competitive position in comparison to its competitors is, and
6. what strategic issues are facing the business.
When a business is conducting a brand audit, the goal is to uncover business’ resource strengths, deficiencies,
best market opportunities, outside threats, future profitability, and its competitive standing in comparison to
existing competitors. A brand audit establishes the strategic elements needed to improve brand position and
competitive capabilities within the industry. Once a brand is audited, any business that ends up with a strong
financial performance and market position is more likely than not to have a properly conceived and effectively
executed brand strategy.
A brand audit examines whether a business’ share of the market is increasing, decreasing, or stable. It
determines if the company’s margin of profit is improving, decreasing, and how much it is in comparison to
the profit margin of established competitors. Additionally, a brand audit investigates trends in a business’ net
profits, the return on existing investments, and its established economic value. It determines whether or not the
business’ entire financial strength and credit rating is improving or getting worse. This kind of audit also
assesses a business’ image and reputation with its customers. Furthermore, a brand audit seeks to determine
whether or not a business is perceived as an industry leader in technology, offering product or service
innovations, along with exceptional customer service, among other relevant issues that customers use to
decide on a brand of preference.
A brand audit usually focuses on a business’ strengths and resource capabilities because these are the
elements that enhance its competitiveness. A business’ competitive strengths can exist in several forms. Some
of these forms include skilled or pertinent expertise, valuable physical assets, valuable human assets, valuable
organizational assets, valuable intangible assets, competitive capabilities, achievements and attributes that
position the business into a competitive advantage, and alliances or cooperative ventures.
The basic concept of a brand audit is to determine whether a business’ resource strengths are competitive
assets or competitive liabilities. This type of audit seeks to ensure that a business maintains a distinctive
competence that allows it to build and reinforce its competitive advantage. What’s more, a successful brand
audit seeks to establish what a business capitalizes on best, its level of expertise, resource strengths, and
strongest competitive capabilities, while aiming to identify a business’ position and future performance.

Marketing strategy[edit]
Main article: Marketing strategy

Two customer segments are often selected as targets because they score highly on two dimensions:

1. The segment is attractive to serve because it is large, growing, makes frequent purchases, is not price
sensitive (i.e. is willing to pay high prices), or other factors; and
2. The company has the resources and capabilities to compete for the segment's business, can meet
their needs better than the competition, and can do so profitably.[2]
A commonly cited definition of marketing is simply "meeting needs profitably".[3]
The implication of selecting target segments is that the business will subsequently allocate more resources to
acquire and retain customers in the target segment(s) than it will for other, non-targeted customers. In some
cases, the firm may go so far as to turn away customers who are not in its target segment.The doorman at a
swanky nightclub, for example, may deny entry to unfashionably dressed individuals because the business has
made a strategic decision to target the "high fashion" segment of nightclub patrons.
In conjunction with targeting decisions, marketing managers will identify the desired positioning they want the
company, product, or brand to occupy in the target customer's mind. This positioning is often an encapsulation
of a key benefit the company's product or service offers that is differentiated and superior to the benefits
offered by competitive products.[4] For example, Volvo has traditionally positioned its products in
the automobile market in North America in order to be perceived as the leader in "safety", whereas BMW has
traditionally positioned its brand to be perceived as the leader in "performance".
Ideally, a firm's positioning can be maintained over a long period of time because the company possesses, or
can develop, some form of sustainable competitive advantage.[5] The positioning should also be sufficiently
relevant to the target segment such that it will drive the purchasing behavior of target customers. [4] To sum
up,the marketing branch of a company is to deal with the selling and popularity of its products among people
and its customers,as the central and eventual goal of a company is customer satisfaction and the return of
revenue.

Implementation planning[edit]
Main article: Marketing plan
The Marketing Metrics Continuum provides a framework for how to categorize metrics from the tactical to strategic.

If the company has obtained an adequate understanding of the customer base and its own competitive position
in the industry, marketing managers are able to make their own key strategic decisions and develop
a marketing strategy designed to maximize the revenues and profits of the firm. The selected strategy may aim
for any of a variety of specific objectives, including optimizing short-term unit margins, revenue growth, market
share, long-term profitability, or other goals.
After the firm's strategic objectives have been identified, the target market selected, and the desired positioning
for the company, product or brand has been determined, marketing managers focus on how to best implement
the chosen strategy. Traditionally, this has involved implementation planning across the "4 Ps" of : product
management, pricing (at what price slot does a producer position a product, e.g. low, medium or high price),
place (the place or area where the products are going to be sold, which could be local, regional, countrywide or
international) (i.e. sales and distribution channels), and Promotion.
Taken together, the company's implementation choices across the 4 Ps are often described as the marketing
mix, meaning the mix of elements the business will employ to "go to market" and execute the marketing
strategy. The overall goal for the marketing mix is to consistently deliver a compelling value proposition that
reinforces the firm's chosen positioning, builds customer loyalty and brand equity among target customers, and
achieves the firm's marketing and financial objectives.
In many cases, marketing management will develop a marketing plan to specify how the company will execute
the chosen strategy and achieve the business' objectives. The content of marketing plans varies from firm to
firm, but commonly includes:

 An executive summary
 Situation analysis to summarize facts and insights gained from market research and marketing analysis
 The company's mission statement or long-term strategic vision
 A statement of the company's key objectives, often subdivided into marketing objectives and financial
objectives
 The marketing strategy the business has chosen, specifying the target segments to be pursued and the
competitive positioning to be achieved
 Implementation choices for each element of the marketing mix (the 4 Ps)
Project, process, and vendor management[edit]
More broadly, marketing managers work to design and improve the effectiveness of core marketing processes,
such as new product development, brand management, marketing communications, and pricing. Marketers
may employ the tools of business process reengineering to ensure these processes are properly designed, and
use a variety of process management techniques to keep them operating smoothly.
Effective execution may require management of both internal resources and a variety of external vendors and
service providers, such as the firm's advertising agency. Marketers may therefore coordinate with the
company's Purchasing department on the procurement of these services. Under the area of marketing agency
management (i.e. working with external marketing agencies and suppliers) are techniques such as agency
performance evaluation, scope of work, incentive compensation, RFx's and storage of agency information in a
supplier database.

Reporting, measurement, feedback and control systems[edit]

Marketing management employs a variety of metrics to measure progress against objectives. It is the
responsibility of marketing managers to ensure that the execution of marketing programs achieves the desired
objectives and does so in a cost-efficient manner.
Marketing management therefore often makes use of various organizational control systems, such as sales
forecasts, and sales force and reseller incentive programs, sales force management systems, and customer
relationship management tools (CRM). Some software vendors have begun using the term marketing
operations management or marketing resource management to describe systems that facilitate an integrated
approach for controlling marketing resources. In some cases, these efforts may be linked to various supply
chain management systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), material requirements
planning (MRP), efficient consumer response (ECR), and inventory management systems.

International marketing management[edit]

Globalization has led some firms to market beyond the borders of their home countries, making international
marketing a part of those firms' marketing strategy.[6] Marketing managers are often responsible for influencing
the level, timing, and composition of customer demand. In part, this is because the role of a marketing manager
(or sometimes called managing marketer in small- and medium-sized enterprises) can vary significantly based
on a business's size, corporate culture, and industry context. For example, in a small- and medium-sized
enterprises, the managing marketer may contribute in both managerial and marketing operations roles for the
company brands. In a large consumer products company, the marketing manager may act as the
overall general manager of his or her assigned product.[7] To create an effective, cost-efficient marketing
management strategy, firms must possess a detailed, objective understanding of their own business and
the market in which they operate.[2] In analyzing these issues, the discipline of marketing management often
overlaps with the related discipline of strategic planning.