Before a product is created, the marketer must determine if there is a demand for the product and how much demand, based on customer needs and wants. If sufficient demand does not exist, the company might invest a lot of money in developing a product that no one purchases. Many products have been unsuccessfully launched in the past with insufficient and inaccurate demand forecasting.

Based on Smith & Armstrongs data (table 3.3, p. 74), how would you change a food product of your choice for a global consumer?

Forecast the demand for the food product you changed above. What type of data would you be looking for, and how would you obtain it? U.S. Labor Department (2019). Bureau of the Census: International database. https://www.census.gov/data-tools/demo/idb/#/country?YR_ANIM=2021

BASED ON SMITH AND ARMSTRONGS DATA If the world were a village of 100 people:

Sixty-one villagers would be Asian (of those, 20 would be Chinese and 17 would be Indian), 14 would be African, 11 would be European, nine would be Latin or South American, five would be North American, and none of the villagers would be from Australia, Oceania, or Antarctica.

At least 18 villagers would be unable to read or write, but 33 would have cellular phones and 16 would be online on the Internet.

Twenty-seven villagers would be under 15, and seven would be over 64. There would be an equal number of males and females.

There would be 18 cars in the village.

Sixty-three villagers would have inadequate sanitation.

Thirty-three villagers would be Christians, 20 would be Muslims, 13 would be Hindus, six would be Buddhists, 14 would be nonreligious, and the remaining 14 would be members of other religions.

Thirty villagers would be unemployed or underemployed, while of those 70 who would work, 28 would work in agriculture (primary sector), 14 would work in industry (secondary sector), and the remaining 28 would work in the service sector (tertiary sector).

Fifty-three villagers would live on less than two U.S. dollars a day. One villager would have AIDS, 26 villagers would smoke, and 14 villagers would be obese.

By the end of a year, one villager would die and two new villagers would be born so the population would climb to 101.