what is test marketing

Test marketing is a method used in business and marketing to gauge the viability of a product or service in the mass market prior to a wide-scale roll-out. It is a way to explore consumer response to a product or marketing campaign by making it available on a limited basis to test markets before a wider release. Test marketing can be used in the early stages of product development, as well as prior to a product launch. The test market aims to duplicate "everything" - promotion and distribution as well as "product" - on a smaller scale. The technique replicates, typically in one area, what is planned to occur in a national launch, and the results are very carefully monitored so that they can be extrapolated to projected national results. Test marketing can also be used to test different versions of a product or campaign to see which is most effective. There are several ways to conduct test marketing, including using a geographic region or demographic group. Some examples of test marketing include software development, free product trials, and releasing different versions of a new product in different markets to compare sales figures. Test marketing is the last step in a process whose goal is a successful product, and it is an essential part of product and marketing campaign development.