Test Marketing

Test Marketing 

Test marketing is the process of testing the proposed marketing program in a realistic setting before releasing the product to the full target market (Kotler and Armstrong, 2012). According to Silk and Urban (1978) this stage of the NPD cycle is used in order to expose problems in the marketing strategy that otherwise would be undetected. The product is introduced to a limited market of potential customers in order to establish the desire for the product in real terms using the proposed marketing strategy in a number of test cities for a designated period of time (McDaniel, Lamb & Hair, 2011). The factors that an organization must consider for test marketing are: how many test cities, which cities, how long to test, what information to collect and what action to take.

Decisions on the above factors will be based on how the organization feels it can best represent the larger market using smaller markets and how long the organisation feel they need to for. There are now organizations, such as the ‘Pretesting Group’, that carry out test marketing for other businesses and carry out the process of “Real world simulation” for them (Pretesting Group, 2013a).

Examples in the Industry

One example of Test Marketing can be seen by Adidas who launched a new interactive, electronic store front to it’s Nuremberg store in 2012 which allowed customers to link up their mobile device in order to select and display products on the front of the Adidas Store and allowed them to purchase products (Digital Signage, 2012). This idea was linked with social media and users were able to ‘like’ and ‘share’ the products they had selected and their location using the large screen. The idea was that if this screen was a success at their flagship store in Nuremberg then it would be rolled out across other Adidas stores.

The Pretesting Group (2013b) are a company dedicated to carrying out Test Marketing for other organisations, their website lists a number of large corporations who have used their services. The website has a number of case studies for the real life processes they have carried out including testing for a new version of skin cream, which resulted in a 14% increase in sales for the company, and a case study on their involvement in the market launch of a new cookie which was successfully launched due to their involvement; this shows the benefits of test marketing.

My Test Marketing Strategy

My product will be launched in 3 UK cities in order to determine demand for the product and the effectiveness of the marketing strategy. The Cone King will be marketed to coaches in Leeds, Newcastle and Birmingham as these are all large cities with a high demand for grassroots football and have a large football following professionally. I have chosen not to launch the product in London initially as it is very large and it would be hard to establish what I wanted to without a very large and expensive strategy. I will market the product directly to coaches through the Local FA’s and use online marketing through email and the products website. I will also use local newspapers and sporting magazines to directly target the local population.

References

Digital Signage, (2012) “Adidas Concept Store – Neurenbuerg” Available at: http://digitalsignageuniverse.typepad.com/digital_signage_universe/2012/10/adidas-neo-concept-store-testing-interactive-digital-signage-storefront-with-smartphones.html (Accessed: 29/01/14)

Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2012). Principles of Marketing.14th ed. London: Pearson.

McDaniel, C. Lamb, C. and Hair, J. (2011). Introduction to Marketing. 11th ed. Cengage

Learning.

Pretesting Group. (2013a). Real World Simulation. [online]. Available at: http://www.pretesting.com/who-we-are/differences/real-world-simulation/ Accessed: (29/01/14)

Pretesting Group. (2013b). Who We Are. [online]. Available at: http://www.pretesting.com/who-we-are/clients/# Accessed: (29/01/14)

Silk, A. J., & Urban, G. L. (1978). Pre-test-market evaluation of new packaged goods: A model and measurement methodology. Journal of Marketing Research, 171-191.