Product testing

Product testing, also called consumer testing or comparative testing, is a process of measuring the properties or performance of products.

The theory is that since the advent of mass production manufacturers produce branded products which they assert and advertise to be identical within some technical standard.

Product testing seeks to ensure that consumers can understand what products will do for them and which products are the best value. Product testing is a strategy to increase consumer protection by checking the claims made during marketing strategies such as advertising, which by their nature are in the interest of the entity distributing the service and not necessarily in the interest of the consumer. The advent of product testing was the beginning of the modern consumer movement.

Product testing might be accomplished by a manufacturer, an independent laboratory, a government agency, etc. Often an existing formal test method is used as a basis for testing. Other times engineers develop methods of test which are suited to the specific purpose. Comparative testing subjects several replicate samples of similar products to identical test conditions.

Product testing might have a variety of purposes, such as:

Product tests can be used for:

Testing electric light longevity and brightness testing

Television testing laboratory

Product testing headphones in an anechoic chamber

Product testing is any process by means of which a researcher measures a product's performance, safety, quality, and compliance with established standards. The primary element which constitutes an objective comparative test program is the extent to which the researchers can perform tests with independence from the manufacturers, suppliers, and marketers of the products..

As industrialization proliferated various manufacturers began exploring concepts of what is now called lean manufacturing to maximize industrial efficiency. This included a trend to produce goods with certain specifications and according to standards for production. Government agencies in the United States in particular started demanding that manufacturers who bid on government contracts fulfill the work according to predefined standards. Early thinkers, such as Frederick J. Schlink, began to imagine a system for applying similar expectations for standards to consumer needs in order to allow people to make purchases according to product merit rather than rival advertising claims or marketing propaganda. Schlink met Stuart Chase and together they published Your Money's Worth, which was a national guide to fraud and manipulation of the American marketplace due to lack of consumer representation in the regulation process. At the end of this book there was a description of a theoretical "consumers' club" which would test products and serve only the interests of consumers.The success of the book led to the founding of Consumers' Research as the world's first consumer organization.[6] This began the consumer movement.

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