Intentions-to-buy survey (survey of customers buying plans):

Here customers are asked about their future buying plans.

Commonly used by industrial markets more than consumer goods marketers.

Advantages

It is easiest to use where:

• Potential market consists of small numbers of customers and prospects.
• Substantial sales are made to individual buyers.
• The manufacturer sells direct to users.
• Customers are concentrated in a few geographical areas.
• Buyers are asked questions like: Do you intend to buy a cooker in the next 3 months?

Answers may be the following:

                        0                      0.25                  0.5                    0.75                  1.0

                        No                   Slight                Fairly                Very                 Certain

                        Chance             possibility          good chance     likely

The answers are aggregated and estimates of total demand for each product prepared and forecast are then derived from total demand using share estimates.

  Weaknesses

• Usually time consuming
• Assumes that customers actually know what they are going to do (not always)
• Assumes that buyers will actually carry out their plans. Some may not actually buy.
• Customers do not always have well formulated buying plans.
• Possibilities of non sampling errors are high depending on how the sample is selected.