Dictionary of Marketing Terms: dry-testing
dry-testing
promoting a product that is not yet available for delivery to the buyer in order to test response to the product before incurring the costs of producing or delivering the product. Dry-testing is usually done on a small scale to avoid customer complaints. Any cash orders received must be refunded. Dry-testing is not encouraged, but it is legal. It is used primarily by industries with very high product start-up costs, such as magazine publishers.
