Test Marketing—An Evaluation of More Recent Micro‐Marketing Methods

The stimulus to this research project was an article by Thornycroft in the Financial Times where he wrote: “The old test marketing idea is virtually dead: it was too expensive. Once companies had committed themselves to manufacturing a new product for a launch in a sizable TV region they were almost bound by cash and executive conceit to proceed with it to a national launch, whatever the auguries. Now the most common procedure is a more selective test either through extensive consumer sampling or the Research Bureau's mini‐van operation or a Westminster Press test campaign, or a simulated supermarket or one of the other testing services on offer.” At the time this appeared a contentious statement—reducing conventional test marketing to little more than a shibboleth. In the event, it served as a hypothesis to study while, at the same time, provided scope for an examination of the newer methods of testing a product in the market‐place before national launch.