Question

How does shaping demand differ from anticipating demand? Who can shape demand, and how is it accomplished?

Answer 1

Demand shaping or shaping the demand is a supply chain strategy which the organization use tactics such as price incentives inorder to attract more customers to buy the product inorder to match it's planned supply. Anticipating demand is purely a forecasting based strategy which uses the historical trend , market situation etc to eatimate the future deman for the product. Shaping is more of tactical approach and demand planning or anticipation of demand is more of strategic approach. Supplychain and pricing team can shape demand based on the input from sales team. Thus an effective collaborative support from sales, supplychain and pricing team is required for demand shaping.It is accomplished through understanding the current supply capabilities and adjust the pricing or providing other attractive services to customers on top of the normal one to push or create a demand which can match with the company's overall target and capacity.