Stage 7 - Test Marketing

Stage 7

Test Marketing

The seventh stage of the new product development process is the test marketing stage. It is defined in the Dictionary of Marketing (2011) as ‘a product test prior to launch with a small representative group’, therefore, it is releasing the product into a small area to see what the reaction to the product is like. It goes on to say that ‘feedback is gathered and the product can be improved before it is rolled out to a larger market or audience’. Also, Korotkov, Occhiocupo and Simkin (2013) believe that ‘test marketing secures business by seeking to avoid major failures’ therefore, by placing the product or format into the market and gathering information on how the small market reacted to the product, decisions can be made ahead of the final release of the format, as to whether to go ahead, make final adjustments or to not go ahead with the release of the format. However, there are disadvantages of doing this, which are, competitors could rush a similar format into production to reduce how successful your format is and it can also be expensive to carry it out.

An example of test marketing is that of the new ECB under 19 Twenty20 competition. To see how successful introducing this new competition would be, they ran four different competitions in Durham, Kent, Surrey and Yorkshire. They planned to see how people reacted to the competition and to see if it would be successful in delivering their aim of ‘boosting participation and keep more youngsters in the recreational game’ (ECB, 2014). However, they also wanted to see how giving the responsibility to the players in creating an occasion of each event, instead of arriving and everything being organised by just the coach. They also wanted to see if a new initiative of letting the players organise the game had the potential to make it into an event and not only make it fun for the participants but, also for the spectators, therefore boosting revenues at clubs. 

The test marketing process will be vital for R1 racing as it will be trying to break into the Formula One market and the formatting is crucial as this is the first event, to get the fan base they want. The first step will be to invite 50 people to watch an R1 event at a smaller circuit and feedback will be collected to see if any changes would have to be made before we then carry out another test market, on one of the practice days at the British Grand Prix held at Silverstone. Again, the event will be shorter than what a usual R1 racing event will be, with only three cars racing 10 laps each rather than four cars doing 12 laps. Holding an event here will mean feedback can be gathered from a large amount of people. The feedback collated from this event will then be reviewed to decide if any more changes are needed before the final commercialisation of R1 Racing.

Reference List

• Doyle, C. (2013) Test Marketing. Available at: http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199590230.001.0001/acref-9780199590230-e-1747 (Accessed: 27^th January 2015).
• ECB. (2014) U19 club cricketers handed T20 opportunity. Available at: http://www.ecb.co.uk/news/articles/u19-club-cricketers-handed-t20-opportunity (Accessed: 27^th January 2015).
• Korotkov, N., Occhiocupo, N. & Simkin, L. (2013) ‘Marketing Intelligence & Planning’, Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science, 31(7), pg. 807-822.