experiment

Definition:
This implies the application of some treatment to experimental material and the observation of some effect. The classical method of experimentation is to maintain constant all other conditions than the chosen variable, so that a causal connection between the treatment and the effect may be deduced. In MARKETING, RESEARCH the material is usually people, and the numerous uncontrollable influences to which they are subject require the repetition of the experiment and statistical methods to estimate whether the results could have arisen by chance. Much experimentation is done in marketing research, often of an informal kind in which only limited attempts are made to repeat the research among many people or occasions, and assumptions from previous experience are used instead to decide on the meaningfulness of the results. Test marketing is usually an experiment of this kind. A PRODUCT TEST is another type of experimentation extensively used.

Cross-References:
[product test] [marketing] [research]

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