Chapter 14

Learning Curve: Setting Up a Testing Plan

In This Chapter

arrow Applying the scientific method to marketing campaigns

arrow Designing a marketing experiment

arrow Taking random samples

arrow Finding significant results

arrow Using control groups

In many ways, marketing is more art than science. Experience and intuition play a large role in the development of marketing and advertising strategies. It’s an age-old lament among marketing executives that they know only half of their marketing budget is effective. The problem is they don’t know which half.

At any given time, your company is running a variety of marketing and advertising campaigns. It’s complicated, and to some extent impossible, to figure out whether a customer purchased your product because they saw a TV commercial or because they saw an ad in the newspaper.

Marketers can measure a lot of things. You have a general sense of how many people see your TV commercials. Television viewership is well tracked. You know how many people subscribe ...

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