Besides estimating total potential and area potential, a company needs to know the actual industry sales taking placr in its markert. This means identifying its competitors and estimating their sales. The industrys trade association will often collect and publish total industry sales, although not listing individual company sales separately. In this way, each company can evaluate its performance against the whole industry. Another way to estimate sales is to buy reports from a marketing research firm that audits total sales and brand sales. For example, a company audits retail sales in various product categories in supermarkets and drug stores and sells this information to interested companies. In this way, a company learns total product category sales as well as brand sales. It can compare its performance to total industry and or any particular competitor to see whether it is gaining or losing share. Estimating Future Demand Company conmonly use a three stage procedure to prepare a sales forecast. They prepare a macroeconomic forecast, followed by a company sales forecast. The macroeconomic forecast calls for projecting inflation, unemployment, interest rates,consumer spending,business investment,government expenditures, net exports and other magnitudes. The end result is a forecast of gross national product,which is then used, along with other environmental indicators, to forecast by assuming that it will win a certain market share. Survey of Buyers Intentions Forecasting is the art of anticipating what buyers are likely to do under a given set of conditions. This suggests that the buyers should be surveyed. Surveys are especially valuable if 5he buyers have clearly formulated intentions,will carry rhem out and will describe them to interviewers. With regards to major consumer durables, several research organizations conduct periodic surveys of consumer buying intentions.
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 14:31:19 +0000
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