Exam 4: Segmenting the Business Market and Estimating Segment Demand

A well-defined segmentation plan will fail without careful attention to implementing the plan.

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

The information needed for micro level segmentation in the business market can usually be drawn from available secondary sources.

Because the Delphi technique is often used for new products or when a product concept is unique, it is only applied to short-range forecasting.

Regression methods of forecasting require considerable historical data to be valid and reliable.

Buying organizations can be segmented based on the stages of the procurement process, such as new-task or straight rebuy.

The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) is an especially valuable source when segmenting the market on the basis of end use.

Sales forecast data is used to:

The concept of market segmentation is more applicable to consumer-goods marketers than to business marketers.