The importance of sales forecasting in establishing marketing strategies

• Author: Constantin C.
• Pages: 3-8

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series V: Economic Sciences • Vol. 9 (58) No. 1 - 2016

The importance of sales forecasting in establishing

marketing strategies

Cristinel CONSTANTIN1

Abstract: This paper contains a research aiming at identifying the factors that have a

significant influence on the sales of a company. Starting from the literature review, we

defined a theoretical model by considering along with the causal variables some factors that

could lead to the existence of various outliers (changes in the level of dependent variable and

seasonal pulse). Using the Multiple Regression we tested the theoretical model and retained

in the analysis only the significant factors, which can help the decision makers to design the

marketing strategies according to the sales’ forecast for the next period of time.

Key-words: marketing strategies, sales forecasting, Multiple Regression, Dummy variables

1. Introduction

Establishing marketing strategies is a crucial process for the future planning of the

business activity of a company, being one of the most important jobs of the decision

makers. But the strategies should be supported by solid information about the past

activities of the companies and the development perspectives starting from the

current position on the market. In this context, the sales forecasting can help the

decision makers to put in practice proper strategies.

The goal of our research is to identify the main factors that influence the sales

of a copy-shop that is placed in a student campus, near the classrooms. The results

show that the sales depend to a large extent on daily seasonal pulse, which has to be

taken into consideration in the process of establishing marketing strategies.

2. Literature review

The marketing strategies are necessary because they establish the ways of achieving

the company’s goals on medium and long term (Kotler and Keller, 2006). At the

same time, these strategies are meant to reduce the risks in the market activity and to

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, cristinel.constantin@unitbv.ro