More and more adults are considering commuting to work by bicycle rather than car, but few bicycles currently on the market have been designed with the commuter's needs in mind.
Imagine that you are a marketing executive for a bicycle manufacturer who wants to enter this potentially expanding market with a new lightweight, easy-to-store bike with safety features that combines the speed of a road bike and the sturdiness of a mountain bike. You have moved through most of the stages of new product development, including formulating a national marketing strategy and working through a series of prototypes. You have decided to test market the bike and marketing program in one or two urban areas with large commuting populations before you begin manufacturing, promoting, and distributing the bike on a national scale.
In an essay, explain the possible advantages and disadvantages of this decision.
Describe the information that you would hope to gather through test marketing and explain how having this information would make a national launch more successful.