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household consumption over some period of time, estimate the average cost of a bag of cookies, and project out for one year. In this case, after an estimate has been made, the candidate would be told to assume the market size is $1Billion to simplify any future calculations. As stated in the upfront information, the market is assumed to have been flat for the past five years. The second question is more involved. It involves determining to what extent your client is threatened by the increasing percent of the overall cookie market represented by private label sales. To better answer this question information should be gathered pertaining to what is driving the demand for private label cookies, to what extent this has already affected your client’s sales, and what the likelihood is for the trend to continue. The following are questions and answers that would be provided in an interview scenario. ? What are the sales trends for the client over the past five years? Your client’s sales have been flat at $600M for the time frame of five to two and onehalf years ago. Over the past two and onehalf years, sales have decreased steadily down to a present level of $560MM. ? How has market share of the private label segment been split over the past five years between your client’s main petitor and the other smaller players? The smaller players bined had 100% of the private label subsegment five years ago. Two and onehalf years ago your client’s main petitor began supplying private labelers. Today, this main petitor owns 40% of the private label subsegment, the smaller players own the remaining 60% ? How has market share of the branded segment been split over the past five years? Your client held 60% of this segment five years ago, 67% two and onehalf years ago and 70% today. Its main petitor held 30% five years ago, 25% two and onehalf years ago and 23% today. The bined smaller players owned 10% five years ago, 8% two and onehalf years ago and 7% today. Analsis of the above information tells a very important story. The private label segment was