OUR APPROACH

This report was created for strategic planners, international executives and import/export managers who are concerned with the market for pianos and other string musical instruments. With the globalization of this market, managers can no longer be contented with a local view. Nor can managers be contented with out-of-date statistics that appear several years after the fact. I have developed a methodology, based on macroeconomic and trade models, to estimate the market for pianos and other string musical instruments for those countries serving the world market via exports or supplying from various countries via imports. I do so for the current year based on a variety of key historical indicators and econometric models.

On the demand side, exporters and strategic planners approaching the world market face a number of questions. Which countries are supplying pianos and other string musical instruments? What is the dollar value of these imports? How much do the imports of pianos and other string musical instruments vary from one country to another? Do exporters serving the world market have similar market shares across the importing countries? Which countries supply the most exports of pianos and other string musical instruments? Which countries are buying their exports? What is the value of these exports and which countries are the largest buyers?

In what follows, Chapter 2 begins by summarizing the regional markets for imported and exported pianos and other string musical instruments. The total level of imports and exports on a worldwide basis, and those for each region, is based on a model which aggregates across country markets and projects these to the current year. From there, each country represents a percent of the world market. This market is served from a number of competitive countries of origin. Based on both demand- and supply-side dynamics, market shares by country of origin are then calculated