Disadvantages Of Test Marketing

It is very important to make sure a product will be successful before a marketer goes through the trouble of manufacturing, promoting, and distributing it. An effective way to do so is to test market the product in an area first. “Testing is a large part of finding out what works before jumping into an idea in the business world. Whether planning a postcard printing campaign, a completely new business idea, or the launch of a new product or service; all business decisions should be tested before fully exposing to your target audience.” (Hornor) Many companies test their products in areas first before they are actually sold because testing your idea first, will save their company unnecessary expenses and sometimes a bad reputation.

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It can be very expensive and time consuming for a marketer to travel to an area with no guarantee that their product will succeed. “It can cost over a million dollars to conduct a test market even in a single city.” (Solomon, Marshall, and Stuart 235) If a marketer were to travel to two urban areas to test market a new bike, they may be unsuccessful and end up spending a lot of money for the travel expenses themselves. Although marketers will do a lot of research as to where they are planning to market, there is no assurance that the customers from these areas are interested in the

“Because of the potential problems and expense of test marketing, marketers instead may use special computer software to conduct simulated test marketing that imitates the introduction of a product into the marketplace.” (Solomon, Marshall, and Stuart 236) By gathering and understanding this information instead of expensively traveling, marketers will get a better idea on where and when to test market their product. “The process entails gathering basic research data on consumers’ perceptions of the product concept, the physical product, the advertising, and other promotional activity.” (Solomon, Marshall, and Stuart 236) It is mostly important that a marketer understands the customers desires and where to test market to these customers because if they do not have this correct information, time will be wasted and the product will not be