test market

Limited group of buyers to whom a new product is sold in order to gauge their reaction to it. Test marketing is part of the research and development phase of a new product. For a consumer product, the test market may be a geographical area, such as the Tyne-Tees area covered by a small commercial television company and where it is therefore not too expensive to use television advertising. Many products that are test marketed never reach a full launch because they fail to meet sales targets in the test area.