C HAPTER 5

2. CHAPTER 5 FORECASTING MARKET DEMAND AND SALES BUDGETS

3. LEARNING OBJECTIVES The process of forecasting helps an organization make decisions; it is necessary for determining information about future markets. This chapter should help you understand: • The importance of forecasting in a firm’s marketing decision support system. • The uses and different categories of sales forecasts. • The two forecasting methods – survey and mathematical – and their different uses. • That the responsibility for approving the final forecast rests at the top management level. • The need for knowledge of computers, because they are used in forecasting and developing sales budgets.

4. MANAGING SALES INFORMATION “Our charge is to design, build, and implement decision support systems that help our field and marketing managers make business decisions.” Dan McKee Marketing decision support systems manager for Marion Merrell Dow, Inc.

5. FORECASTING MARKET DEMAND A marketing decision support system (MDSS) is an ongoing, future-oriented structure designed to generate, process, store, and later retrieve information to aid decision making in an organization’s marketing program. It involves problem-solving technology composed of people, knowledge, software, and hardware “wired” into the sales management process.

6. USES OF SALES FORECASTS A sales forecast is the estimated dollar or unit sales for a specific future time period based on a proposed marketing plan and an assumed market environment.

7. A sales forecast is important for at least five reasons: • A sales forecast becomes a basis for setting and maintaining a production schedule – manufacturing. • It determines the quantity and timing of needs for labor, equipment, tools, parts, and raw materials – purchasing, personnel. • It influences the amount of borrowed capital needed to finance the production and the necessary cash flow to operate the business – controller. • It provides a basis for sales quota assignments to various segments of the sales force – sales management. • It is the overall base that determines the company’s business and marketing plans, which are further broken down into specific goals – marketing officer.

8. FIGURE 5.1 PLANNING/FORECASTING/BUDGETING SEQUENCE

9. THE FORECASTING PROCESS The forecasting process refers to a series of procedures used to forecast.

10. A market factor is an item or element that (1) exists in a market, (2) may be measured quantitatively, and (3) is related to the demand for a product or service. A market index is simply a market factor expressed as a percentage relative to some base figure.

11. FIGURE 5.2 THE FORECASTING PROCESS

12. FIGURE 5.3 BASIC STEPS IN BREAKDOWN METHOD OF FORECASTING SALES

13. Industry sales forecast, or market potential, is the estimated sales for all sellers. Company sales potential is the maximum estimated or potential sales the company may reach in a defined time period under given conditions. The company’s share of the estimated sales for an entire industry is referred to as market share.

14. SALES FORECASTING METHODS Two categories of sales forecasting methods exist: • Survey methods are qualitative and include executive opinion, sales force composite, and customer’s intention surveys. • Mathematical methods are test markets, market factors, naïve models, trend analysis, and correlation analysis.

15. FIGURE 5.4 THE MORE POPULAR OF MANY FORECASTING METHODS

16. SURVEY FORECASTING METHODS • Four basic survey methods are • Executive Opinion • Sales Force Composite • User’s Expectations • Build-to-Order

17. Executive Opinion Executive forecasting is done in two ways: • By one seasoned individual (usually in a small company). • By a group of individuals, sometimes called a “jury of executive opinion.”

18. The group approach uses two methods: • Key executives submit the independent estimates without discussion, and these are averaged into one forecast by the chief executive. • The group meets, each person presents separate estimates, differences are resolved, and a consensus is reached.

19. Delphi Method Administering a series of questionnaires to panels of experts.

20. Sales Force Composite Obtaining the opinions of sales personnel concerning future sales.

21. User’s Expectations Consumer and industrial companies often poll their actual or potential customers.

22. Build-to-Order Companies build final products only after firm orders are placed.

23. MATHEMATICAL FORECASTING METHODS Test markets are a popular method of measuring consumer acceptance of new products.

24. FIGURE 5.5 CITIES COMMONLY USED AS TEST MARKETS – RESIDENTS ARE MOST LIKELY TO SEE NEW PRODUCTS.

25. Time Series Projections Time series methods use chronologically ordered raw data.

26. Classical approach to time series analysis: • The trend component. • The seasonal component. • The cyclical component. • The erratic component.

27. Naïve Method Next Year’s Sales = This Year’s Sales X This Year’s Sales Last Year’s Sales

28. Moving Average Moving averages are used to allow for marketplace factors changing at different rates and at different times.

29. TABLE 5.1 EXAMPLE OF MOVING-AVERAGE FORECAST

30. Exponential Smoothing Exponential smoothing is similar to the moving-average forecasting method. It allows consideration of all past data, but less weight is placed on data as it ages. Next Year’s Sales = a (This Year’s Sales) + (1-a) (This Year’s Forecast)

31. Trend Projections – Least Squares Eyeball fitting is simply a plot of the data with a line drawn through them that the forecaster feels most accurately fits the linear trend of the data.

32. FIGURE 5.6 A TREND FORECAST OF SALES

33. Regression Analysis Regression analysis is a statistical method used to incorporate independent factors that are thought to influence sales into the forecasting procedure.

34. FIGURE 5.7 REGRESSION ANALYSIS

35. FIGURE 5.8 QUESTIONS TO ANSWER TO IMPROVE CHANCES OF HITTING THE FORECASTING BULL’S-EYE

36. TABLE 5.2 GUIDE TO FORECASTING

37. THE SALES MANGAGER’S BUDGET The sales force budget is the amount of money available or assigned for a definite period, usually one year.

38. BUDGET PURPOSES • Planning • Coordination • Control

39. TABLE 5.3 SALES FORCE OPERATING COSTS

40. BUDGETS SHOULDBE FLEXIBLE Sales, costs, prices, or the competition’s marketing efforts are some factors that may be higher or lower than expected.

41. THE BOTTOM LINE Because of the growing trend in business to centralize data collections, the job of forecasting has become an integral part of a firm’s marketing decision support system (MDSS). A sales forecast is the estimated dollar or unit sales for a specific future period based on a proposed marketing plan and an assumed market environment. Firms know sales forecasting is never 100 percent correct. Two categories of sales forecasting methods are survey methods and mathematical methods. Because the sales forecast has a major impact on the company, the top executives give final approval. To create a sales forecast, sales managers should know how to use a computer.