Test market
A test market is a geographically limited area which, according to certain criteria, represents a representative image of the overall market sought for a new product and on which the product is tested in order to be able to calculate the launch risk and marketability. It is therefore a matter of primary market research .
A test market must have a population, economic, competitive and trade structure comparable to the planned target market . This also applies to the media structures. Furthermore, spatial delimitation is required.
Within the test market, the newly developed product is introduced on a trial basis using all planned marketing instruments and the behavior and reaction of the market participants (potential customers , competitors) and the success of the new product are analyzed through accompanying surveys and / or market observations . The knowledge gained from this is transferred to the overall market.
The size of a test market can be selected as desired, provided that it is considered representative of the overall market. So it can be a city, a state, a region or an entire country.
Examples of test markets
In the history of market research, some areas have proven to be particularly suitable for representative market tests. Popular test markets are Haßloch , Bremen, Berlin, the Rhine-Neckar region and Hesse. Further test markets exist in Saarland, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
Austria serves some companies as a test market for the introduction of new products in the entire German-speaking area or the EU. The mobile operator Hutchison Drei Austria was only offering video telephony nationwide on a trial basis in Austria . Other companies present similar scenarios in individual regions of Germany or Switzerland.
Current development
The traditional form of the test market is becoming increasingly less important. This is due on the one hand to the high expenditure of time and material and on the other hand to the market infiltration strategies of competitors. For cost reasons, an electronic test market was developed in addition to the regional or local one, which combines household and retail panels and is significantly more cost-saving. Current trends are in the direction of the virtual or simulated test market. These are computer simulations that consist of many thousands of consumers. When creating a virtual test market, methods from artificial intelligence are used. The technical basis for this are so-called multi-agent systems . The advantages of virtual test markets lie in the quick availability of the test results as well as in their flexibility, which allows more than just one product or service to be tested. Added to this are the relatively low costs compared to real test markets.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Test market. In: Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon. Retrieved December 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Ernst Hache, Heinz Sander: Taschenlexikon Betriebswirtschaft: 1001 terms - systematically and from A - Z selected for the practitioner . Expert Verlag , Renningen 1994, ISBN 978-3-8169-0813-5 , pp. 23–24 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Test market. In: Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon. Retrieved March 13, 2014 .
- ^ The Hassloch experiment. In: Süddeutsche Online. May 19, 2010, accessed March 13, 2014 .
- ↑ Test market. In: Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon. Retrieved March 13, 2014 .
- ↑ Absatzwirtschaft 7/2003 (Print archive). (PDF) Knowledge: Test Markets, accessed on February 13, 2020 .