engleski

THE APPLICATION OF AHP MODEL AND SURVEY RESULTS IN DECIDING ON A PRODUCT LINE

The paper deals with a case study in which a potential investor wanted to invest into a furniture store in Dalmatia. In four Dalmatian counties (the Split, Zadar, Šibenik and Dubrovnik counties), 220 randomly selected persons (180 answered) were asked by telephone what kind of furniture they would like to buy in the next two years and how much they were prepared to pay for the purchase. The furniture was divided into the following categories: kitchen and dining room, living room, nursery, bedroom, study, bathroom and toilet, hall, and other. The price categories included <5000 kuna (3rd money category), 5000 - 15000 kuna (2nd money category), >15000 kuna (1st money category) and does not intend to invest into the furniture. The investor was interested in 5 product lines at the most (the kind of furniture and quality). The five most represented product lines were selected on the basis of the survey results (percentage of answers according to the kind of furniture and investment intent) and they represented five alternatives of the analytical hierarchy model (AHP): Kitchen and dining room 2nd money category (11, 67%) Bedroom 2nd money category (9, 44%) Kitchen and dining room 3rd money category (8, 33%) Living room 2nd money category (7, 22%) Living room 1st money category (7, 22%) The AHP model will provide further ranking of profitability of the selected product lines taking into account other criteria as well. The criteria to assess optimality include Financial efficacy (total income, the rate of capital return, costs), Risk (business environment in the future time period, financial power of the market) and Competition (the number of existing furniture stores, the power of the competition). Taking into consideration other criteria important for a successful company business, the AHP method showed that the living room in the 1st money category had priority. Changing the priorities of the criterion financial efficacy (the most important criterion), the ranking of the alternatives is also changed. In other words, by decreasing the importance of financial efficacy, the kitchen and dining room in the 2nd money category take priority.

AHP model; market research

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