Collecting Information and  Forecasting Demand

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
In this chapter, we will address the following questions:
1. What are the components of a modern marketing information system?
2. What are useful internal records for such a system?
3. What makes up a marketing intelligence system?
4. What are some influential macroenvironment developments?
5. How can companies accurately measure and forecast demand?
CHAPTER SUMMARY
1. To carry out their analysis, planning, implementation, and control responsibilities,
marketing managers need a marketing information system (MIS). The role of the MIS is
to assess the managers’ information needs, develop the needed information, and
distribute that information in a timely manner.
2. An MIS has three components: (a) an internal records system, which includes
information on the order-to-payment cycle and sales information systems; (b) a
marketing intelligence system, a set of procedures and sources used by managers to
obtain everyday information about pertinent developments in the marketing environment;
and (c) a marketing research system that allows for the systematic design, collection,
analysis, and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation.
3. Marketers find many opportunities by identifying trends (directions or sequences of
events that have some momentum and durability) and megatrends (major social,
economic, political, and technological changes that have long-lasting influence).
4. Within the rapidly changing global picture, marketers must monitor six major
environmental forces: demographic, economic, social-cultural, natural, technological, and
political-legal.
5. In the demographic environment, marketers must be aware of worldwide population
growth; changing mixes of age, ethnic composition, and educational levels; the rise of
nontraditional families; and large geographic shifts in population.
6. In the economic arena, marketers need to focus on income distribution and levels of
savings, debt, and credit availability.
C H A P T E R 3 GATHERING
INFORMATION AND
FORECASTING
DEMAND

7. In the social-cultural arena, marketers must understand people’s views of themselves,
others, organizations, society, nature, and the universe. They must market products that
correspond to society’s core and secondary values and address the needs of different
subcultures within a society.
8. In the natural environment, marketers need to be aware of the public’s increased
concern about the health of the environment. Many marketers are now embracing
sustainability and green marketing programs that provide better environmental solutions
as a result.
9. In the technological arena, marketers should take account of the accelerating pace of
technological change, opportunities for innovation, varying R&D budgets, and the
increased governmental regulation brought about by technological change.
10. In the political-legal environment, marketers must work within the many laws
regulating business practices and with various special-interest groups.
11. There are two types of demand: market demand and company demand. To estimate
current demand, companies attempt to determine total market potential, area market
potential, industry sales, and market share. To estimate future demand, companies survey
buyers’ intentions, solicit their sales force’s input, gather expert opinions, analyze past
sales, or engage in market testing. Mathematical models, advanced statistical techniques,
and computerized data collection procedures are essential to all types of demand and
sales forecasting.
OPENING THOUGHT
Students new to the discipline of marketing will probably be surprised at the level of
marketing information, intelligence, and arenas that marketing managers must operate within.
The instructor is encouraged to stress that the marketing of products/services and the processes
of making marketing decisions do not operate without careful consideration of the
environments identified in this chapter. Today, marketers must be cognizant of “how” their
product or service is perceived as much as “how” it functions.
In many cases, the chief marketing executive of the firm can sometimes see himself/herself as
a player in the game of chess. Each move must be carefully chosen for subsequent moves by
competition and public scrutiny for acceptance or rejection. Products marketed must meet
both the consumer’s needs as well as the public’s acceptance of the product.
The instructor’s challenge for this chapter is to communicate to the students the complexity of
and sometimes the conflicting forces impacting marketing managers in the 21st Century.
TEACHING STRATEGY AND CLASS ORGANIZATION
PROJECTS
1. Semester-long marketing plan: Competitive information and environmental scanning
project(s) completed and presented for instructor’s review.

2. Commission a marketing research study on topic(s) of interest to the students at your
institution. During the course of the semester (15-16 weeks), have the students develop the
questionnaire, collection method, conduct the survey, and tabulate the results. The students
can be divided into groups for this project. Suggested topics can include the school or
university students’ opinions of campus issues such as the athletic program, sale of
alcohol, use of and availability of technology, or students’ perceptions of their current
education experiences.
3. Sonic PDA Marketing Plan Marketing information systems, marketing intelligence
systems, and marketing research systems are used to gather and analyze data for various
parts of the marketing plan. These systems help marketers examine changes and trends in
markets, competition, customer needs, product usage, and distribution channels. Some
changes and trends may turn up evidence of opportunities or threats.
Sonic has developed information about the competition and competitive situation, but Jane
Melody believes more information is needed in preparation for launching the first PDA.
Based on the marketing plan contents discussed in Chapter 2, how can you use MIS and
marketing research to support the marketing planning for the new PDA.
• For which sections of the plan will you need secondary data? Primary data? Why do
you need information for each section?
• Where can you find secondary data that will be useful? Identify two Internet sources
and two non-Internet sources. Describe what you plan to draw from each source, and
indicate how you will use the data in your marketing plan.
• What primary research will Sonic need to support its marketing strategy, including
product management, pricing, distribution, and marketing communication? What
questions or issues should Sonic seek to resolve using primary data?
• What technological, demographic, and/or economic changes can potentially affect
PDA development, buyer acceptance of PDAs, and development of substitute or
enhanced products?
Enter your answers about Sonic’s use of marketing research in a written marketing plan or in
the Marketing Research, Market Analysis, Market Trends, and Macroenvironment sections of
Marketing Plan Pro.
ASSIGNMENTS
Using information from the web like FEDSTATS and the U.S. Census Bureau, have the
students predict the population of the U.S. for the years 2020, and 2060 and specifically
answer the following questions: a) What is the demographic makeup of the U.S. in these

years? b) What is the age dispersion in the U.S. in these years, and c) What industries do you
see benefiting/losing within the U.S. because of these population figures.
Obesity has been officially called an epidemic as cited in the opening vignette of the chapter.
In small groups, have the students collect, from the university or college administrators,
information about the students eating habits (on campus students would be one group;
commuting students another group), exercise, and lifestyle. For example, how many students
(as a percentage of the total student population) regularly take advantage of the available
exercise facilities? How many students presently on campus are clinically obese? This is a
very good project to demonstrate the skill of data mining and the use of secondary data.
Select or suggest a current “fad” or “trend” exhibited by students on campus. Each student is
to select either a fad or trend and then research this fad and trend in light of the marketing
opportunities present. Would a firm be successful in capitalizing on this “fad?” If so, why?
Should companies capitalize on this “trend”—What are the “upsides” for producing products
that are currently “trendy?” What are the “downsides?” What generation do these fads and
trends appeal to? How large is the potential market for the fad and/or trend? Students should
prepare a report with as much detail into the specific characteristics of these markets as is
available. This is a good secondary data and data mining assignment.
Each student is a member of an identifiable ethic and demographic segment of society. As an
individual assignment, ask each student to describe their sub-segment in terms of population,
age distribution, growth potential, income, education levels, and other demographic
characteristics. The conclusion of their report should explain the marketing implications of
their findings in terms of potential market, over-saturated market, declining market, or hidden
or ignored market with potential.
Global forces and macroenvironment factors continually challenge marketers. Selecting one of
the macroenvironmental factors from Table 3.3 challenge the students to prepare a report on
how they see that global force affecting, influencing, and limiting marketers in the near future.
For example, point # 2 states that “the movement of manufacturing capacity and skills to
lower-cost countries” is one of the forces affecting marketing. How will this statement affect
multi-nationals in their marketing plans for the future? Suggested responses might point out
that the multi-nationals must consider the low cost of wages in these countries when pricing
their products; that the increase in manufacturing in lower-cost countries may increase the
residents’ standard of living, thus opening up markets for new products such as time saving
and labor saving devices. Open up the class for discussion regarding how these global forces
will affect (positively and negatively) marketing practices in the 21st Century.
END-OF-CHAPTER SUPPORT
MARKETING DEBATE—Is Consumer Behavior More of a Function of a Person’s Age
or Generation?

One of the widely debated issues in developing marketing programs that target certain age
groups is how much consumers change over time. Some marketers maintain that age
differences are critical and that the needs and wants of a 25-year-old in 2002 are not that
different from those of a 25-year-old in 1972. Others dispute that contention and argue that
cohort and generational effects are critical and that marketing programs must therefore suit the
times.
Take a position: Age differences are fundamentally more important than cohort effects versus
cohort effects can dominate age differences.
Suggested Response
Pro: People are the “age” they think they are. We have experienced some fundamental
changes in consumer lifestyles and the definition of “family.” These changes suggest that
people are and can adapt to different products regardless of their chronological age. Today a
vast number of aging baby boomers, for example, do not think of themselves as approaching
middle age; as a result they represent a growing market for age defeating products. This is true
with other age groups, as the advances in medicine, technology, and income have redefined
what the “age” number really means to people. In marketing today, the marketing of a product
or service can be designed to fit differing age groups by its positioning and advertising. Key
examples include cruise line advertising and marketing to “active adults” encompassing a
wide range of activities and locations previously thought of for the “youth” market.
Conversely, with the delay in child bearing and child rearing by some generations, activities
that were once thought of as for middle age or empty nesters can be remarketed to appeal to
these groups as well. Some generations have decided to explore the world before settling
down with children and a mortgage. All of these changes open up vast amounts of marketing
opportunities to enterprising firms and individuals. Marketing to one’s perception of “age”
rather than to the physical definition of age is an exciting new arena for marketers.
Con: Age and cohorts are more important than age differences. People still pass through life as
part of a “group” and experience the newness of life through cohort experiences and relate to
others within their identifiable group. Marketing to cohorts extends the ability of the marketer
to capitalize on share emotions, experiences, trends, and fads that have or had made lasting
impressions on the cohort. Technology has changed so much in the last few decades and has
influenced subsequent generations about expectations and potential, that one must market to
the cohorts in order to identify with their experiences. People within a particular cohort seek
information for purchase decisions from influencers within their cohort. Marketers must
identify these influencers and tailor messages that affect their review of products and gain
favor with them.
MARKETING DISCUSSION
What brands and products do you feel successfully “speak to you” and effectively target your
age groups? Why? Which ones do not? What could they do better?
Suggested Response

Individual student answers will depend upon the products chosen, however these answers
should refer to and include some of the key concepts presented in the chapter.
Marketing Excellence: MICROSOFT
Questions:
1) Evaluate Microsoft’s strategy in good and poor economic times.
Suggested Answer: Microsoft’s marketing strategy did not/does not change to reflect
consumer’s changing buying priorities. For example, in 2008 in the midst of a recession,
Microsoft was still plugging away with selling products at premium prices without
delivering premium value for the money (VISTA)—hence the success of Apple’s
campaign—premium products, but they deliver performance.
In good times, people’s willingness to “buy” products based on prestige, popularity, and
peer pressures is greater than in less robust economic times when priorities are evaluated
more closely. Microsoft has to learn to adjust its marketing message to meet the
demands/requirements of their consumers.
2) Discuss the pros and cons of Microsoft’s most recent “I’m a PC” campaign. Is
Microsoft doing a good thing by acknowledging Apple’s campaign in its own marketing
message? Why or why not?
Suggested Answer: Why not: Most branding and marketing professionals would say that
Microsoft’s ad campaign just validates Apple’s marketing message and highlights the
obvious differences between the two competing brands.
Why: This current campaign did serve to highlight the critical point of difference of using
a PC and that’s in its connectivity, universality of usage, and cost effectiveness.
Marketing Excellence: Ferrero
Questions:
1. Evaluate Ferrero Australia’s decision to open an online boutique. Will this have any
impact on the company’s other business segments?
Suggested Answer: Ferrero decided to target a niche segment: the premium gift segment.
There are many customers who like to present premium chocolates as gifts for various
occasions; the online boutique store will serve that purpose. Ferrero is also able to sell
products that are otherwise unavailable in Australia through its online outlet. This strategy will
not impact Ferrero’s other business, because the consumer segment targeted through the
online store is different.
2. How can Ferrero use new technology to market its products better?

Suggested Answer: Ferrero already uses Facebook and iPhone applications to engage
customers through feedback mechanisms. Perhaps Ferrero could conduct online focus groups
through live Twitter sessions in order to generate ideas for new products. They could also
consider using platforms other than Apple—for example, Android—to develop applications.
DETAILED CHAPTER OUTLINE
Making marketing decisions in a fast-changing world is both an art and a science. To
provide context, insight, and inspiration for marketing decision making, companies must
possess comprehensive, up-to-date information about macro trends, as well as about
micro effects particular to their business. Holistic marketers recognize that the marketing
environment is constantly presenting new opportunities and threats, and they understand
the importance of continuously monitoring, forecasting, and adapting to that
environment.
Firms are adjusting the way they do business for more reasons than just the economy.
Virtually every industry has been touched by dramatic shifts in the technological,
demographic, social-cultural, natural, and political-legal environments. In this chapter, we
consider how firms can develop processes to identify and track important macroenvironment
trends.
COMPONENTS OF A MODERN MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM
The major responsibility for identifying significant marketplace changes falls to the
company’s marketers. Marketers have two advantages for the task: disciplined methods
for collecting information, and time spent interacting with customers and observing
competitors and other outside groups. Some firms have marketing information systems
that provide rich detail about buyer wants, preferences, and behavior.
Marketers also have extensive information about how consumption patterns vary across
and within countries.
Companies with superior information can choose their markets better, develop better
offerings, and execute better marketing planning.
Every firm must organize and distribute a continuous flow of information to its marketing
managers. A marketing information system, or MIS, consists of people, equipment,
and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and
accurate information to marketing decision makers. It relies on internal company records,
marketing intelligence activities, and marketing research.
Information Needs Probes
1. What decisions do you regularly make?
2. What information do you need to make these decisions?
3.What information do you regularly get?

4.What special studies do you periodically request?
5.What information would you want that you are not getting now?
6.What information would you want daily? Weekly? Monthly? Yearly?
7.What online or offline newsletters, briefings, blogs, reports, or magazines would you
like to see on a regular basis?
8.What topics would you like to be kept informed of?
9.What data analysis and reporting programs would you want?
10.What are the four most helpful improvements that could be made in the present marketing
information system?
INTERNAL RECORDS
To spot important opportunities and potential problems, marketing managers rely on internal
reports of orders, sales, prices, costs, inventory levels, receivables, and payables.
Order-to-Payment Cycle
The heart of the internal records systems is the order-to-payment cycle.
Sales Information Systems
Marketing managers need timely and accurate reports on current sales.
A) Companies that make good use of “cookies,” records of Web site usage stored on
personal browsers, are smart users of targeted marketing. Companies must carefully
interpret the sales data so as not to draw the wrong conclusions.
Databases, Data Warehouses, and Data Mining
Companies organize their information into customer, product, and salesperson databases—and
then combine their data.
A) Companies warehouse these data for easy accessibility to decision makers.
MARKETING INTELLIGENCE
A marketing intelligence system is a set of procedures and sources that managers use to
obtain everyday information about developments in the marketing environment. The
internal records system supplies results data, but the marketing intelligence system

supplies happenings data. Marketing managers collect marketing intelligence in a variety
of different ways, such as by reading books, newspapers, and trade publications; talking
to customers, suppliers, and distributors; monitoring social media on the Internet; and
meeting with other company managers.
Marketing intelligence gathering must be legal and ethical.
A company can take eight possible actions to improve the quantity and quality of its
marketing intelligence:
1) A company can train and motivate the sales force to spot and report new
developments.
2) A company can motivate distributors, retailers, and other intermediaries to pass
along important intelligence.
3) A company can hire experts to collect intelligence.
4) A company can network internally and externally.
5) A company can set up a customer advisory panel.
6) A company can take advantage of government-related data resources.
7) A company can purchase information from outside suppliers.
8) A company can use online customer feedback systems to collect competitive
intelligence.
COLLECTING MARKETING INTELLIGENCE ON THE INTERNET
Thanks to the explosion of outlets available on the Internet, online customer review
boards, discussion forums, chat rooms, and blogs can distribute one customer’s
experiences or evaluation to other potential buyers and, of course, to marketers seeking
information about the consumers and the competition.
There are five main ways marketers can research competitors’ product strengths and
weaknesses online.
1. Independent customer goods and service review forums.
2. Distributor or sales agent feedback sites.
3. Customer complaint sites.
4. Public blogs.
Communicating and Acting on Marketing Intelligence
In some companies the staff scans the Internet and major publications, abstracts relevant
news, and disseminates a news bulletin to marketing managers. The competitive
intelligence function works best when it is closely coordinated with the decision-making

process.
ANALYZING THE MACROENVIRONMENT
Successful companies recognize and respond profitably to unmet needs and trends.
Needs and Trends
Enterprising individuals and companies manage to create new solutions to unmet needs.
A) A fad is “unpredictable, short-lived, and without social, economic, and political
significance.”
B) A trend is a direction or sequence of events with momentum and durability.
C) Trends are more predictable and durable than a fad.
1) A trend reveals the shape of the future and provide strategic direction.
D) Megatrends are a “large social, economic, political, and technological changes [that]
are slow to form, and once in place, they influence us for some time—between seven
and ten years, or longer.
E) Trends and megatrends merit close attention.
F) To help marketers’ spot cultural shifts that might bring new opportunities or threats,
several firms offer social-cultural forecasts.
Identifying the Major Forces
The end of the first decade of the new century brought a series of new challenges: the
steep decline of the stock market, which affected savings, investment, and retirement
funds; increasing unemployment; corporate scandals; stronger indications of global
warming and other signs of deterioration in the national environment; and of course, the
rise of terrorism. These dramatic events were accompanied by the continuation of many
existing trends that have already profoundly influenced the global landscape.i
Firms must monitor six major forces in the broad environment: demographic, economic,
social-cultural, natural, technological, and political-legal.
1) Demographic
2) Economic
3) Social-cultural
4) Natural
5) Technological
6) Political-legal
DEMOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENT

The main demographic force that marketers monitor is population because people make up
markets.
A) Marketers are keenly interested in the:
1) Size and growth rate of populations in cities, regions, and nations.
2) Age distribution and ethnic mix.
3) Educational levels.
4) Household patterns.
5) Regional characteristics and movements.
Worldwide Population Growth
World population growth is explosive: Earth’s population totaled 6.8 billion in 2010 and will
exceed 9 billion by 2040.
A) Population growth is highest in countries and communities that can least afford it
B) A growing population does not mean growing markets unless there is sufficient
purchasing power.
Marketing Insight:
Finding Gold at the bottom of the pyramid
There are 5 billion unserved and underserved people at the so-called “bottom of the pyramid.”
One study showed that 4 billion people live on $2 or less a day. Firms operating in those
markets have had to learn how to do more with less
Population Age Mix
A) There is a global trend toward an aging population. National populations vary in their
age mix. A population can be subdivided into six age groups:
1) Preschool children
2) School-age children
3) Teens
4) Young adults age 20 to 40
5) Middle-aged adults age 40 to 65
6) Older adults ages 65 and up
Cohorts are groups of individuals born during the same time period who travel through life
together.
Ethnic and Other Markets
Ethnic and racial diversity vary across countries.

The growth of the Hispanic population represents a major shift in the nation’s center of
gravity.
A) Ethnic groups have certain specific wants and buying habits.
B) Marketers must be careful not to over generalize about ethnic groups.
C) Within each ethnic group are consumers quite different from each other.
D) Diversity goes beyond ethnic and racial markets.
1) More than 51 million U.S. customers have disabilities, and they constitute a
market for home delivery companies.
Educational Groups
A) The population in any society falls into five educational groups:
1) Illiterates
2) High school dropouts
3) High school degrees
4) College degrees
5) Professional degrees
Household Patterns
The “traditional household” consists of a husband, wife, and children (sometimes
grandparents). Yet by 2010, only one in five U.S. households will consists of a married couple
with children under 18. More people are divorcing or separating, choosing not to marry,
marrying later, or marrying without intending to have children. Nontraditional households are
growing more rapidly than traditional households.
1) Single live-alones
2) Single-parent families
3) Childless married couples
4) Empty-nesters
B) Gay and Lesbian population ranges between 4 and 8%
The Economic Environment
The available purchasing power in an economy depends on current income, prices,
savings, debt, and credit availability. As the recent economic downturn vividly
demonstrated, trends affecting purchasing power can have a strong impact on business,
especially for companies whose products are geared to high-income and price-sensitive
consumers.
Consumer Psychology

Did new consumer spending patterns during the 2008-2009 recession reflect short-term,
temporary adjustments or long-term, permanent changes?ii Some experts believed the
recession had fundamentally shaken consumers’ faith in the economy and their personal
financial situations.
“Mindless” spending would be out; willingness to comparison shop, haggle, and use
discounts would become the norm. Others maintained tighter spending reflected a mere
economic constraint and not a fundamental behavioral change. Thus, consumers’
aspirations would stay the same, and spending would resume when the economy
improves.
Income Distribution
A) There are four types of industrial structures:
1) Subsistence economies
2) Raw-material-exporting economies
3) Industrializing economies
4) Industrial economies
B) Marketers often distinguish countries with five different income-distribution patterns:
1) Very low incomes
2) Mostly low incomes
3) Very low, very high incomes
4) Low, medium, high incomes
5) Mostly medium incomes
Income, Savings, Debt, and Credit Availability
A) Consumer expenditures are affected by:
1) Income
2) Savings
3) Debt
4) Credit availability
Social-Cultural Environment
From our socio-cultural environment we absorb, almost unconsciously, a world view that
defines our relationships to ourselves, others, organizations, society, nature, and the
universe.
1) Views of ourselves
2) Views of others

3) Views of organizations
4) Views of society
5) Views of nature
6) Views of the universe
High Persistence of Core Cultural Values
Most people in the United States still believe in working, getting married, giving to charity,
and being honest.
A) Core beliefs and values are passed on from parents to children and are reinforced by
social institutions.
B) Secondary beliefs and values are more open to change.
C) Marketers have some chance of changing secondary values, but little chance of
changing core values.
D) Although core values are fairly persistent, cultural swings do take place.
Existence of Subcultures
A) Each society contains subcultures, groups with shared values emerging from their
special life experiences or circumstances.
Natural Environment
In Western Europe, “green” parties have pressed for public action to reduce industrial
pollution. In the United States, experts have documented ecological deterioration, and
watchdog groups such as the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth carry these concerns
into political and social action.
Corporate environmentalism recognizes the need to integrate environmental issues into the
firm’s strategic plans.
Marketing Insight: The Green Marketing Revolution
Gallup polls reveal that the percentage of U.S. consumers who report that they worry about
the environment a great deal or fair amount increased from 62% to 77% between 2004 and
2006.
Technological Environment

It is the essence of market capitalism to be dynamic and tolerate the creative destructiveness of
technology as the price of progress. The marketer should monitor the following trends in
technology:
1) Accelerating pace of change
2) Unlimited opportunities for innovation
3) Varying R&D budgets
4) Increased regulation of technological change
Political-Legal Environment
The political and legal environment consists of laws, government agencies, and pressure
groups that influence various organizations and individuals. Sometimes these laws create new
business opportunities.
A) Increase in business legislation
B) Growth of Special-Interest Groups
1) Consumerist movement
2) Privacy issues and identify theft will continue to be public policy in the near future
FORECASTING AND DEMAND MEASUREMENT
Understanding the marketing environment and conducting marketing research (described in
Chapter 4) can help to identify marketing opportunities. The company must then measure and
forecast the size, growth, and profit potential of each new opportunity. Sales forecasts
prepared by marketing are used by finance to raise cash for investment and operations; by
manufacturing to establish capacity and output; by purchasing to acquire the right amount of
supplies; and by human resources to hire the needed workers. If the forecast is off the mark,
the company will face excess or inadequate inventory. Since it’s based on estimates of
demand, managers need to define what they mean by market demand.
The Measures of Market Demand
Companies can prepare as many as 90 different types of demand estimates for six different
product levels, five space levels, and three time periods. Each demand measure serves a
specific purpose.
1. The potential market is the set of consumers with a sufficient level of interest in a
market offer.
2. The available market is the set of consumers who have interest, income, and access
to a particular offer.

3. The target market is part of the qualified available market the company decides to
pursue.
4. The penetrated market is the set of consumers who are buying the company’s
product.
A Vocabulary for Demand Measurement
MARKET DEMAND
The marketer’s first step in evaluating marketing opportunities is to estimate total market
demand.
Market demand for a product is the total volume that would be bought by a defined
customer group in a defined geographical area in a defined time period in a defined
marketing environment under a defined marketing program.
Market demand is not a fixed number, but rather a function of the stated conditions. For
this reason, we call it the market demand function.
Some base sales—called the market minimum and labeled Q1 in the figure—would take
place without any demand-stimulating expenditures.
The distance between the market minimum and the market potential shows the overall
marketing sensitivity of demand.
We can think of two extreme types of market, the expansible and the nonexpansible.
An expansible market, such as the market for racquetball playing, is very much affected
in size by the level of industry marketing expenditures,
A nonexpansible market—for example, the market for weekly trash or garbage
removal—is not much affected by the level of marketing expenditures; the distance
between Q1 and Q2 is relatively small.
Organizations selling in a nonexpansible market must accept the market’s size—the level
of primary demand for the product class—and direct their efforts toward winning a larger
market share for their product, that is, a higher level of selective demand for their
product.
It pays to compare the current and potential levels of market demand. The
result is the market-penetration index.
Comparing current and potential market shares yields a firm’s share-penetration index. If
this index is low, the company can greatly expand its share.
MARKET FORECAST
Only one level of industry marketing expenditure will actually occur. The market demand
corresponding to this level is called the market forecast.
MARKET POTENTIAL
The market forecast shows expected market demand, not maximum market demand.
Market potential is the limit approached by market demand as industry marketing
expenditures approach infinity for a given marketing environment.

Companies interested in market potential have a special interest in the product-penetration
percentage, the percentage of ownership or use of a product or service in a population.
COMPANY DEMAND
Company demand is the company’s estimated share of market demand at alternative levels
of company marketing effort in a given time period. It depends on how the company’s
products, services, prices, and communications are perceived relative to the competitors’.
COMPANY SALES FORECAST
Once marketers have estimated company demand, their next task is to choose a level of
marketing effort.
The company sales forecast is the expected level of company sales based on a chosen
marketing plan and an assumed marketing environment.
A sales quota is the sales goal set for a product line, company division, or sales
representative. It is primarily a managerial device for defining and stimulating sales
effort, often set slightly higher than estimated sales to stretch the sales force’s effort.
A sales budget is a conservative estimate of the expected volume of sales, primarily for
making current purchasing, production, and cash flow decisions. It’s based on the need to
avoid excessive risk and is generally set slightly lower than the sales forecast.
COMPANY SALES POTENTIAL
Company sales potential is the sales limit approached by company demand as company
marketing effort increases relative to that of competitors. The absolute limit of company
demand is, of course, the market potential.
Estimating Current Demand
We are now ready to examine practical methods for estimating current market demand.
Marketing executives want to estimate total market potential, area market potential, and
total industry sales and market shares.
TOTAL MARKET POTENTIAL
Total market potential is the maximum sales available to all firms in an industry during
a given period, under a given level of industry marketing effort and environmental
conditions. A common way to estimate total market potential is to multiply the potential
number of buyers by the average quantity each purchases, times the price.
AREA MARKET POTENTIAL
Because companies must allocate their marketing budget optimally among their best
territories, they need to estimate the market potential of different cities, states, and nations.
Two major methods are the market-buildup method, used primarily by business marketers,
and the multiple-factor index method, used primarily by consumer marketers.

The market-buildup method calls for identifying all the potential buyers in each market
and estimating their potential purchases.
It produces accurate results if we have a list of all potential buyers and a good estimate of
what each will buy. Unfortunately, this information is not always easy to gather.
An efficient method of estimating area market potentials makes use of the North
American Industry Classification System (NAICS), developed by the U.S. Bureau of the
Census in conjunction with the Canadian and Mexican governments.
Multiple-Factor Index Method Like business marketers, consumer companies also need
to estimate area market potentials, but since their customers are too numerous to list they
commonly use a straightforward index.
Many companies compute area indexes to allocate marketing resources.
The brand development index (BDI) is the index of brand sales to category sales.
INDUSTRY SALES AND MARKET SHARES
Besides estimating total potential and area potential, a company needs to know the actual
industry sales taking place in its market.
This means identifying competitors and estimating their sales. The industry trade
association will often collect and publish total industry sales, although it usually does not
list individual company sales separately.
With this information, however, each company can evaluate its own performance against
the industry’s.
Another way to estimate sales is to buy reports from a marketing research firm that audits
total sales and brand sales.
Estimating Future Demand
The few products or services that lend themselves to easy forecasting generally enjoy an
absolute level or a fairly constant trend, and competition that is either nonexistent (public
utilities) or stable (pure oligopolies). In most markets, in contrast, good forecasting is a
key factor in success.
Companies commonly prepare a macroeconomic forecast first, followed by an industry
forecast, followed by a company sales forecast.
How do firms develop their forecasts? They may create their own or buy forecasts from
outside sources such as marketing research firms, which interview customers,
distributors, and other knowledgeable parties. All forecasts are built on one of three
information bases: what people say, what people do, or what people have done.
SURVEY OF BUYERS’ INTENTIONS
Forecasting is the art of anticipating what buyers are likely to do under a given set of
conditions.
For major consumer durables such as appliances, research organizations conduct periodic
surveys of consumer buying intentions, ask questions like: Do you intend to buy an

automobile within the next six months?, and put the answers on a purchase probability
scale.
COMPOSITE OF SALES FORCE OPINIONS
When buyer interviewing is impractical, the company may ask its sales representatives to
estimate their future sales.
EXPERT OPINION
Companies can also obtain forecasts from experts, including dealers, distributors,
suppliers, marketing consultants, and trade associations.
PAST-SALES ANALYSIS
Firms can develop sales forecasts on the basis of past sales.
Time-series analysis breaks past time series into four components (trend, cycle, seasonal,
and erratic) and projects them into the future.
Exponential smoothing projects the next period’s sales by combining an average of past
sales and the most recent sales, giving more weight to the latter.
Statistical demand analysis measures the impact of a set of causal factors (such as
income, marketing expenditures, and price) on the sales level.
Finally, econometric analysis builds sets of equations that describe a system and
statistically derives the different parameters that make up the equations statistically.
MARKET-TEST METHOD
When buyers don’t plan their purchases carefully, or experts are unavailable or
unreliable, a direct-market test can help forecast new-product sales or established product
sales in a new distribution channel or territory.
i Indata, IN (June 2006), p. 27.
ii Elisabeth Sullivan, “The Age of Prudence,” Marketing News, April 15, 2009, pp. 8-11;
Steve Hamm, “The New Age of Frugality,” BusinessWeek, October 20, 2008, pp. 55-60;
Jessica Deckler, “Never Pay Retail Again,” CNNMoney.com. (May 30, 2008).