THE USE OF MARKOV ANALYSIS IN MARKETING OF SOFT DRINKS PRODUCTS

Abstract

This paper examined the application of Markov chain in marketing three competitive soft drink products in Nigeria.  Markov analysis has been used in the last few years mainly in marketing, examining and predicting the behavior of customers in terms of their loyality and switching from one product to another. The three soft drinks companies Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Bigi-Cola were used as a case study. Information on daily sales was extracted from the records of sampled distributors in Oyo metropolis when we assume the same pattern of gain and losses. It was observed that, Bigi-Cola Company has the highest probability of retaining their customers followed by Coca-Cola company and Pepsi in that order.