Abstract:

One of the sacred institutions of American grocery and drug product marketing today is the test market. Virtually no products ai-e extended to national distribution and placed into major product runs without extensive test market ing experience. The high cost of marketing failures have made this s corner stone of today's marketing plans. Yet, the test market has not been an unqualified success. Often, managements are faced with a difficult series of decisions after examining test marketing results as virtually existed prior to the test marketing effort.