Exposure of goods or services to a small sample of the entire market to test various marketing strategies.
Some areas of the country are considered better barometers of demand than others, because the tastes of a particular area for certain products seem to resemble those of the whole country.
These are most often areas that attract mobile people from all over the country, such as the Sunbelt states. The area chosen must be representative of the areas where that product is in demand. For example, swimwear would not be tested in North Dakota, nor snowshoes in Florida.
Some markets are used as the ultimate test of demand for a product, because consumers there are slow to accept a new brand or product. That's the meaning behind the theatrical phrase "Will it play in Peoria?".
- Sunbelt : Southern tier of the United States, focused on Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California, and extending as far north as Virginia. The term gained wide use in the 1970s, when the economic and political impact of the nation’s overall shift in population to the south and west became conspicuous.
- Rustbelt : Economic region in the north east quadrant of the United States, focused on the Midwestern states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, as well as Pennsylvania. The term gained wide use in the 1970s as the formerly dominant industrial region became noted for the abandonment of factories, unemployment, outmigration, the loss of electoral votes, and overall decline.
- "Will it play in Peoria?" : Traditionally used to ask whether a given product, person, promotional theme or event will appeal to the mainstream America, or across a broad range of demographic/psychographic groups. It has become a shorthand phrase in American business, with historical ties to Peoria, a diverse, metropolitan, mid-sized city located in central Illinois. In the United States, Peoria, Illinois, has legendary status as a test market. Peoria has long seen as a representation of the averge American city, because of its demographics and its perceived mainstream Midwestern culture. The phrase initially came into fashion when the vaudeville era, believed to have been first asked by Groucho Marx when putting together a new act. The belieft was that if a new show was successful in Peoria, it would work anywhere in America. Years later in the 1960s and 1970s, Peoria was deemed an ideal test market by various consumer-focused companies, entertainment enterprises such as films and concert tours, even politicians, to gauge opinion, interest and receptivity to new products, services and campaigns.
市場化テスト 【官民競争入札】
- 「市場化テスト」とは : これまで「官」が独占してきた「公共サービス」について、「官」と「民」が対等な立場で競争入札に参加し、価格・質の両面で最も優れた者が、そのサービスの提供を担っていくこととする制度です。
- 導入目的 : 公共サービスの質の向上と公共サービスの効率化（経費・人員の節減）（※地域産業の活性化にもつながる）
