Demand and its determinantsDemand reflects the size and the pattern ofmarket. Business activity is always market- determined. The manufacturers’ inducement to invest in a given line of production is limited by the size of market The demand for output and input; the demand for the firm and the industry; the demand by the consumer and stockist; For example, suppose the firm is aiming at ‘customer service’ not profit. How can it ensure quantity and quality of service, without analyzing what the customer really wants? Or suppose, the firm is destined to discharge ‘social responsibility’ of business. Can this be done without evaluating social preferences? Tastes, preferences and choices are all concepts directly built into the economic concepts of ‘demand’.
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Demand reflects the size and the pattern of market.Business activity is always market-determined. The manufacturers’ inducementto invest in a given line of production islimited by the size of market The demand foroutput and input; the demand for the firm andthe industry; the demand by the consumerand stockist;For example, suppose the firm is aiming at ‘customer service’ not profit. How can itensure quantity and quality of service, without
analyzing what the customer really wants? Orsuppose, the firm is destined to discharge ‘social responsibility’ of business. Can this bedone without evaluating social preferences?Tastes, preferences and choices are allconcepts directly built into the economicconcepts of ‘demand’.
if the demand for a product is subject to temporarybusiness recession, the firm may plan to pile up the stockof unsold products.
If the demand for a product shows a trend towards a
substantial and sustained increase in the long run, the firmmay plan to install additional plant and equipment to meetthe demand on a permanent basis.
If the demand for a firm’s product is falling, while its rival’ssale is increasing, the firm needs to plan its sales tactics;the firm may need to undertake some sales promotionactivity like advertisement.
If the firm’s supply of the product is unable to meet itsexisting demand, the firm may be required to revise itsproduction plan and schedule; or the firm may have toreview its purchase plan for inputs and the suppliers’ response to input requirements by the firm.
examples is that the whole range of planning by the firm–production planning,
inventory planning, cost budgeting,purchase plan, market research, pricingdecision, advertisement budget, profitplanning etc. – call for an analysis of demand. The decision which managementmakes with respect to any functional area,always hinges on an analysis of demand.
Demand analysis seeks to identifyand measure the forces thatdetermine sales; it reflects themarket conditions for the firm’sproduct. Once the demand analysis
is done, the alternative ways of creating, controlling or managingdemand can be inferred.
A poor man’s desires to stay in a five-star hotelroom and his willingness to pay rent for thatroom is not ‘demand’, because he lacks thenecessary purchasing power; so it is merely his
wishful thinking. Similarly, a miser’s desire forand his ability to pay for a car is not ‘demand’,because he does not have the necessarywillingness to pay for a car.
Dx = D (Px, Py, Pz, B, W, A, E, T, U)Here Dx, stands for demand for item x (say, acar)
Px, its own price (of the car)Py, the price of its substitutes (otherbrands/models)Pz, the price of its complements (like petrol)B, the income (budget) of the purchaser
(user/consumer)W, the wealth of the purchaserA, the advertisement for the product (car)E, the price expectation of the user
T, taste or preferences of userU, all other factors.
iii) The demand for X is also sensitive toprice expectation of the consumer; buthere, much would depend on thepsychology of the consumer;
This is speculative demand. When theprice of a share is expected to go up,some people may buy more of it in theirattempt to make future gains; others maybuy less of it, rather may dispose it off, tomake some immediate gain. Thus theprice expectation effect on demand is notcertain.
the consumer It is another important influence on demand. As
income (real purchasing capacity) goes up,people buy more of ‘normal goods’ and less of ‘inferior goods’. Thus income effect on demand
may be positive as well as negative. The demandof a person (or a household) may be influencednot only by the level of his own absolute income,but also by relative income—his income relativeto his neighbour’s income and his purchase
pattern. Thus a household may demand a newset of furniture, because his neighbour hasrecently renovated his old set of furniture. This iscalled ‘demonstration effect’.
Sometimes, even social pressure—customs, traditions and conventionsexercise a strong influence on demand.These socio-psychological determinants of demand often defy any theoreticalconstruction; these are non-economic andnon-market factors—highly indeterminate.
Direct demand refers to demand for goods meant for finalconsumption; it is the demand for consumers’ goods likefood items, readymade garments and houses.
By contrast, derived demand refers to demand for goodswhich are needed for further production; it is the demandfor producers’ goods like industrial raw materials, machine
tools and equipments. Thus the demand for an input orwhat is called a factor of production is a derived demand;its demand depends on the demand for output where theinput enters.
For example, the demand for gas in a fertilizer plantdepends on the amount of fertilizer to be produced and
substitutability between gas and coal as the basis forfertilizer production.
When the demand for a product is tied to the purchase of some parent product, its demand is called induced orderived. For example, the demand for cement is inducedby (derived from) the demand for housing. As statedabove, the demand for all producers’ goods is derived orinduced. In addition, even in the realm of consumers’ goods, we may think of induced demand. Consider thecomplementary items like tea and sugar, bread and butteretc. The demand for butter (sugar) may be induced by thepurchase of bread (tea).
Autonomous demand, on the other hand, is not derived orinduced. All direct demand may be loosely calledautonomous.
we can classify goods into several categories:single-use consumer goods, single-use producergoods, durable-use consumer goods and durable-use producer’s goods.
Non-durable items are meant for meetingimmediate (current) demand, but durable itemsare designed to meet current as well as futuredemand as they are used over a period of time.Because of continuous use, such assets like
furniture or washing machine, suffer depreciationand thus call for replacement. Thus durablegoods demand has two varieties – replacement of old products and expansion of total stock. Suchdemands fluctuate with business conditions,speculation and price expectations.
A market is visited by different consumers, consumerdifferences depending on factors like income, age, etc.They all react differently to the prevailing market price of acommodity. For example, when the price is very high, alow-income buyer may not buy anything, though a highincome buyer may buy something. In such a case, we may
distinguish between the demand of an individual buyer andthat of the market ,which is the aggregate of individuals. You may note that both individual and market demand
schedules (and hence curves, when plotted) obey the law of demand. But the purchasing capacity varies betweenindividuals. For example, A is a high income consumer, B isa middle-income consumer and C is in the low-income
group. This information is useful for personalized service ortarget-group-planning as a part of sales strategyformulation.
Different individual buyers together mayrepresent a given market segment; and severalmarket segments together may represent thetotal market. For example, the Hindustan
Machine Tools may compute the demand for itswatches in the home and foreign marketsseparately; and then aggregate them together toestimate the total market demand for its HMTwatches. This distinction takes care of different
patterns of buying behavior and consumers’ preferences in different segments of the market.Such market segments may be defined in termsof criteria like location, age, income, nationality,and so on
An industry is the aggregate of firms (companies). Thus theCompany’s demand is similar to an individual demand,whereas the industry’s demand is similar to aggregatedtotal demand.
For example, you may think of the demand for cement
produced by the Cement Corporation of India (i.e., acompany’s demand), or the demand for cement producedby all cement manufacturing units including the CCI (i.e.,an industry’s demand). The determinants of a company’sdemand may not always be the same as those of anindustry’s. The inter-firm differences with regard to
technology, product quality, financial position, market(demand) share, market leadership and competitiveness---- all these are possible explanatory factors. In fact, a clearunderstanding of the relation between company andindustry demands necessitates an understanding of different market structures.