Introduction
Test Marketing, if properly implemented, can help marketers to make sound judgments about the widespread introduction of their products in their right manner. Although critics might say that it becomes a reason of extended expenses that would be added to the costs of the system, the benefits that it may provide to the organization in the long run.
Test Marketing – Good or Bad?
Test marketing is the idea of launching a product in a certain vicinity to gauge the response that the product or service gets. It provides you with ideas regarding the improvements that can be put into the product, although it proves to be quite costly for organizations, especially smaller ones. Since small organizations cannot afford to perform test marketing, they rely on their basic instincts and marketing skills and directly go for the launch preparation. Therefore, it should be taken care of that the test marketing cannot be applied by all kinds of organization.
To understand the complete effects of test marketing and to reap its benefits, test marketing should be conducted in areas which are the best reflecting areas for your target market. If one marketer fails to understand and define their target market in the right manner, it might cost them the whole campaign because it would not help them reap the same benefits from the test marketing phenomena.
Another reason why test marketing should be conducted is you might never understand the response of the audience towards your product. These days, entrepreneurs venturing into the market are usually putting all their savings and investments at stake by starting certain businesses they thoroughly believe in. Test marketing provides you with valuable feedback that can help improve the product that is being developed before the actual launch of the product (Geisheker, 2006). This helps the organization to exactly manipulate their marketing strategy or their product mix in order to make the product more viable for the consumers. Therefore, test marketing proves to be instrumental in a marketing campaign. In the short run it might be a cost for the organizations, as the immediate benefits won’t be registered, however, in years to come, the company will benefit a lot from the valuable information extracted from the test marketing techniques and put their learning in the product.
Conclusion
Many different tools have been developed now to test market a product in today’s world. Due to the excessive internet use and its wide scale popularity, it should be used to understand the reaction of the customer towards the product. Social networking websites such as face book, orkut etc can be used effectively to target the target audience in the right manner. One might come to know the exact response of the consumer. Internet advertisements can be fruitful in helping to realize the kind of response that should be expected from the prospective target market if the product had been released. These effective low costs ways provide ample opportunities to individuals to test market their product. Since four out of five products are bound to fail, according to study, test marketing should be fruitful in helping you make your product a success (Sittenfeld, 1967).
Bibliography
Sittenfeld, H. (1967) Test Marketing. Arrow Books Limited.
Geisheker, P. (2006) The importance of Product Test Marketing. Web.
Tracy, B. (2008) Test Marketing your new Product or Service. Web.