Enter the percent of market category sales and the percent of the market population into the calculator to determine the CDI (Category Development Index).

CDI Formula

The following formula is used to calculate the category development index. 

CDI = MCS / MP
  • Where CDI is the category development index
  • %MCS is the percent of market category sales
  • %MP is the percent of the population in the market

To calculate the category development index, divide the percent of market category sales by the percent of population in the market.

What is CDI?

Definition

CDI, short for category development index, is a measure of the relative strength of a specific category of products or services when compared to the total population in the market.

Similar to BDI, CDI is used to measure sales performance, but instead of measuring the sales performance of a brand, it measures the sales performance of a category as a whole.

CDI vs BDI

For example, CDI could be the total amount of computer sales among a given population while BDI would be the total amount of a brand’s computer sales relative to the market population.

How to calculate category development index (CDI)?

The following example problem outlines the steps needed to calculate a category development index.

First, determine the total percentage of sales of a category in a given population. For this example, the percentage of sales of the category is 15%.

Next, determine the total percentage of the population in the market. In this case, the percent of the market is 13%.

Finally, calculate the CDI using the formula above:

CDI = %MCS / %MP * 100

CDI = 15 / 13 * 100

CDI = 115.38