The purpose of undertaking test marketing are: 1. To ascertain various uses of the product, the class or category of users, and the motives that prompt the users or buyers.
The relevance of test marketing to an industry depends essentially on the type of […] Test markets are an established part of marketing folklore and an accepted piece of the marketing armory, but do we stop often enough to ask two basic questions: Are these tests always necessary?
In spite of the natural temptation for marketing managers to seek disproportionate attention to sales and marketing support for their test launches, such temptation has to be resisted: the research or forecasting manager must make an objective prediction that assumes normal support.
There are four major factors that should be considered in determining the efficacy of test marketing: 1. It is necessary to weigh the cost and risk of product failure against the profit and probability of success.
Eliminating all nonessential marketing expenses and letting sales decline is one of the successful strategies for marketing products in the decline stage of their life cycle.
Increasing globalization of markets and competition provides a reason for multinational firms to consider new-product development from a worldwide perspective.
A new-product strategy describes the characteristics of products an organization wants to offer and the markets it wants to serve.
They depend largely on distributors to gather information about customer needs and expectations.
The speed, safeness, and reliability of test marketing is higher than that of simulated market testing.
In test-marketing, the following considerations are essential: 1. Identification of the different uses of the product. 2. Classification of the market from geographical angle with reference to the major uses or applications of the product. ADVERTISEMENTS:
The purpose of undertaking test marketing are: 1. To ascertain various uses of the product, the class or category of users, and the motives that prompt the users or buyers. 2. To gauge the nature of general competitive situations, latest trend in demand, etc. 3.
The term ‘test marketing’ is also some- times called ‘field-testing’. The word ‘test’ means examination or trial. Test marketing, thus, means testing the product in the market before the product is commercialised on a large scale. This is done with a view to understand the market and the marketing considerations like nature of competition, ...
5. After having tested the market, the marketing management decides about the marketing mix and marketing strategy. If the sales are excellent and highly promising, a decision to commercialise a product is taken.
If the sales are not so bright, the underlying reasons are investigated for further improvement or modification and a retest is undertaken. If the sales indicated by test are poor, the management may drop the idea altogether. Marketing Management, Products, Test Marketing.
In a word, the basic objectives behind the test marketing are: (i) To sharpen the knowledge of the territory for marketing and. (ii) To decide marketing strategy with respect to pricing, promotions and distribution systems.
To elicit the following fundamental information necessary for arriving at the proper marketing decision: specific product advantages and disadvantages, new uses or applications of the product, necessity or otherwise for the modification or improvement of the product, etc. ADVERTISEMENTS:
Test marketing enables the company to minimize losses but not to maximize profits. There are four major factors that should be considered in determining the efficacy of test marketing: 1. It is necessary to weigh the cost and risk of product failure against the profit and probability of success.
The relevance of test marketing to an industry depends essentially on the type of manufacturing process involved. The confectionery industry, for example, can frequently produce sufficient quantities of the new product for test market purposes by minor modifications to existing plants and layouts whereas, in the event of a national launch, an entirely new plant may have to be built, which would necessitate a much heavier investment.
If test markets enable large parts of these important costs to be deferred until a reliable estimate of national sales can be made, based on actual experience of the product in the marketplace, then test marketing is desirable.
Care must be taken to avoid distortions in test market results. The conditions in the experimental region, for example, should resemble as nearly as possible those under which the product would be launched nationally. Even though any new product should receive priority from the sales force and intensive marketing support during the launch period, the support in the test area must be of the same weight as could be afforded on a national basis. In spite of the natural temptation for marketing managers to seek disproportionate attention to sales and marketing support for their test launches, such temptation has to be resisted: the research or forecasting manager must make an objective prediction that assumes normal support.
The two most successful products developed by a Cadbury company during the past 20 years have been Smash instant potato and Marvel instant dried skimmed milk. The introduction of these products created quite new markets and caused our competitors to launch similar products.
If the advertising is not communicating, then new advertising will have to be developed and implemented if the product is to be given a proper trial. If the package design lacks impact, this too can probably be corrected during the test.
First, it provides an opportunity to test a product under typical market conditions in order to obtain a measure of its sales performance. As well as enabling top management to make an accurate prediction of its potential national turnover, this information often forms the basis of the decision whether to extend the product nationally. So the importance of its accuracy is self-evident.