Exam 4: Segmenting the Business Market and Estimating Segment Demand

Compare and contrast the different quantitative sales forecasting techniques that are used by business marketing managers. Be sure to note the strengths and limitations of each technique.

The sales forecasting approach that utilizes a panel of experts and converts their opinions into an informed consensus by means of highly structured, multi-stage pooling is:

If the business marketer can identify meaningful and profitable market segments at the macro level, the segmentation process is complete.

A successful implementation of a segmentation strategy requires attention to:

The Thompson Spring Company has developed a separate marketing strategy for each of the industries that uses its products. These industries include makers of machine tools, bicycles, surgical devices, telephones, and missile systems. This provides an illustration of segmentation on the basis of:

Market segmentation is:

​In segmenting, customers may be categorized into tiers based on estimates of the future.

Which might be a type of customer that should be considered as a possible valuable segment?

The sales force composite approach to forecasting is a quantitative forecasting method because it uses past sales data to predict future sales potential.

Johnson Technology, a highly successful producer of specialized equipment for the paper industry is contemplating entry into a new industry segment. Beth Walker, the firm's marketing vice-president, has always felt that Johnson Technology could serve the equipment needs of food processors like General Foods. The same basic technology underlies the equipment in both sectors and Beth feels that Johnson Technology has a meaningful edge over all competitors. ​ Describe the company, competitive, and market factors that the firm should consider before committing resources to this new industry segment.

In time series analysis, the _____ component indicates the long-term general direction of the data.

Which sales forecasting approach is effective when intimate knowledge of customer plans is important?

Recent research on forecasting techniques indicates that improvements in forecasting accuracy can be achieved by combining the results of several forecasting methods.

Business market segmentation at the _____ level requires a higher level of market knowledge and, therefore, a greater investment in research.

In order to use macrolevel bases of segmentation, the business marketer must move beyond secondary sources of information by soliciting input from the sales force or by conducting a special market segmentation study.

The _____ component of a time series reflects intermediate-term, regularly recurring, upswings and downswings of data around the long-term general direction of the data.

Regression models are useful to industrial firms projecting final consumer demand for items of which their products become a part.

Because a specific industrial good is often used in different ways, the marketer can divide the market using the NAICS.

Bases of business or organizational market segmentation that focus on the characteristics of decision-making units are broadly classified as:

Value-in-use constitutes a microlevel base of segmentation.