Brand Development Index and Category Development Index

Media Planning & Buying Calculators

Brand Development Index (BDI) relates the percent of a brand’s sales in a market to the percent of the U.S. population in that same market.

Category Development Index (CDI) relates the percent of a category’s sales in a market to the percent of the U.S. population in that same market.

BDI = ((% of Brand’s Total U.S. Sales in “Market X”) / (% of the Total US Population in “Market X” ) ) x 100

CDI = ((% of Category’s Total Sales in “Market X”) / (% of the Total US Population in “Market X” ) ) x 100

Important points to remember about brand development index:

Indexes should be expressed as whole numbers.
BDI and CDI assume that the U.S. population represents the “norm” or base of “100.”
Markets with the highest index numbers do not necessarily represent the best potential.

Source: Media Math, NTC Publishing