Marketing -- Test Marketing Is a Way

¶ … marketing -- Test marketing is a way to take a specific group and test the viability of a product or service for that group. This may be done in many ways, through focus groups, home use, trials, short or long tests. There are numerous advantages and disadvantages to test markets. For our purposes, three disadvantages are:

Lack of broad enough test -- the product may be a prototype and not mature enough at the point of testing to give the company viable information. Or, the information gleaned may not be applicable after the test.

Group not indicative of users -- the demographics and/or psychographics of the test group are not really indicative of the prime potential user(s) of the actual product; or the audience may be inappropriate.

Risk vs. time -- test marketing may give the competition an edge, and too much retooling or redesigning might allow the product to be released later than expected.

Part 2 -- 3 Products -- Sometimes marketing and sales professionals fail to realize some of the complexities or advantages/disadvantages of their products because they are too close to the subject. Some examples are: 1) product complexity -- usually gadgets, for instance, universal remote controllers for entertainment centers (TV, cable, stereo, dvd, etc.) that must be programmed by the end user; 2) trialability -- it is far easier for certain low-price products such as food (cereal, candy bars, snacks, etc.) to be sampled and tried out before purchasing than major ticket items; 3) compatibility -- is the degree to which products are consistent with the area or culture; why would certain air conditioning products be popular in cold climates, or warm weather clothing or footwear?

Part 3 -- 3 Products in Maturity Stage -- Products in the maturity stage have decreasing sales because they have often saturated the marketplace. Sometimes, in order to get an extra level of excitement or sales into the market. This could be by adding something new (flavor, color, etc.) or finding new uses for the product. Examples of this could be: 1) Seasonal styles of Oreo cookies (red and green for Christmas, pastels for Spring, etc.); 2) Baking Soda used as a household deodorizer, cat box cleaner, or muscle soak; 3) LEGO toys that are adding more colors and shapes, and using a television show and theme park to sell more ideas for products.

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