Example - Create a bubble chart to compare margin and value
In this example we'd like to chart our high-margin low-value products, and vice versa. Specifically, we want to chart value, value/item and margin measures for items in the 'Product sub class' dimension.
Start with two measures
Step 1. In grid view, Select Mode > Total and select the 'Product sub class' dimension. Then select a number of sub-classes and focus to remove the others from view.
Step 2. Select the following measures: local value and local value/item.
The image below shows the result of these two steps.
Step 3. Switch to Chart view and select Bubble. The result is shown below, where all bubbles are the same size.
Add a third measure
Now we'll add 'margin' to the list of selected measures.
Step 4. Select Measure > Reporting Margin % (you can stay in chart view to make this sleection).
Step 5. 'Reporting Margin' should now appear under the Radius values setting to the left of the chart, as shown below. If it doesn't appear automatically you can go into the Radius values dropdown and set it from there. You will see an extra legend to the bottom right of the chart. This displays the relationship between 'margin' and bubble size.
The chart now shows that our highest value group (Downlights) has a relatively low margin (small circle). The group causing concern is Outside, which has low sales, low value per item and low margin group.
Bubble chart in summary view
Selecting Summary will change the chart to display a bubble for each time unit within the selected period - in this case 'Financial YTD'.
In the image below, the user has selected Summary. Each bubble in this image displays the total performance of the selected product classes for each month through to March 2016.