Re: How Much Testing Is Enough? -- Small Businesses Discussion Forum

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Subject: Re: How Much Testing Is Enough?

Author:
Dennis S. Vogel

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Date Posted: 10:12:20 05/23/01 Wed
In reply to: KatyD 's message, "How Much Testing Is Enough?" on 10:09:08 05/23/01 Wed

Hi Katy:

I don't remember hearing or reading anything about this before. The best answer I can think of is to advertise something, including test ads until you're sure that the
market for that product/service has become or shortly will be saturated. (There may be times that a market for a service or perishable product would be saturated.)

Garrison Keillor wrote in his tales about Lake Woebegon about people desperately wanting a tomato in late spring, but by late summer, after the tomatoes in everybody's
gardens are ripe, they can't even give tomatoes away.

If you can't even give something away, then the market is saturated, at least for a while.

This begs the next logical question -
"What would a person know when a market is saturated instead of an ad just losing its effectiveness?"

This would depend on the product/service. One possible way is - If you've tried ads that have covered every "hot button" and sales are weak or not happening, you should
probably figure that the market is saturated.

A "hot button" is something that triggers a buying response. If a guy tells me that he needs a car that's dependable, then for him (others like him) dependability is a "hot button."

Of course, it might take the pushing of more than one "hot button" to get somebody to buy something.

You could be daring and offer the product/service for a very low price, (but have an expiration date) and find out if anybody will buy it. You can bill it as a marketing test
to find out if anybody is still interested in the product/service.

DennisVogel@wz.com
WZ-ard of the business startups realm-
"Small Businesses Thriving in the Shadows of Giant Competitors "
http://wz.com/business/SmallBizThriving.html
http://www.thrivingbusiness.homestead.com

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