form of marketing occurring in the producttesting step of the overall product development process. Selected areas of the country are chosen during test marketing for the actual introduction of the product. Sales and consumer reactions are monitored for an overall evaluation of the product. Test marketing is very expensive and gives the competition lead time to study new products.
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.
