Beats by Dr. Dre (Beats) is a leading audio brand founded in 2006 by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine and was acquired by Apple Inc. in 2014. Beats has become a favorite brand among consumers who enjoy listening to music. It is also somewhat of a status brand. The company markets a variety of products including headphones, earphones, speakers, and accessories. The product managers for the Beats product groups are involved in the sales forecast processes for their products, which is important to ensuring strong support for retailers and customers as well as to achieve sales objectives. The product managers hire experts to create initial forecasts, submit them to the company for averaging, and have the results returned to them so they can make individual refined forecasts. The procedure is iterative and may be repeated several times until the experts who are working independently reach a consensus. The process typically results in a very reliable sales forecast. What type of sales forecasting method do the product managers of Beats use?
A)Expert forecasting survey
B)Trend analysis
C)Delphi technique
D)Executive judgment

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The product managers at Beats use the Delphi technique, which involves hiring experts to create initial forecasts, submitting them to the company for averaging, refining forecasts, and repeating until independent experts reach a consensus. This process is iterative and typically results in a reliable sales forecast.