Test Marketing

one of the final stages in new product development, where the product and the marketing program are introduced on a small scale into one or more selected cities or market areas. Test marketing provides the marketer the opportunity to observe consumer behavior toward the product in a real market situation, gain experience with the marketing program, and assess potential problem areas before launching a full-scale product introduction. Test marketing provides a great deal of information about the future success of the product and is often used to make profit and sales forecasts.