Problems in Marketing Experimentation:

The advantages of experiments in determining the  cause and effect relationships  are many. They can predict some events. The causal relationship  can be established and models can be developed. Apart from  the advantages of  experimentation there are several problems  of experimentation.

1. Lack of Theory: Experimentation  lacks theories to use the research design. The marketing  research has been  primarily descriptive  and extensive information in  now  available  in the area  of  marketing. But  there  is no  adequate and proper theory  or hypothesis to test them and to  fin doubt  the real  relationship between  marketing variables. This is now gradually developing with  the  expansion of research  facilities and there  is much  scope  of development of research theories in marketing areas.

2. Cost of  Experimentation: Experimental research is costlier. At least  two group are required to test  the hypotheses i ,e, the experimental group and  control group. The data are collected twice in many  cases. A large number of sample members is collected. Thus it is expensive  enough to control a wide  variety of data. The processing of data is allow very  costly. Therefore the  experimentation  is used  only when the benefits of the research are more  then that  of the cost  involved  in the experimentation. Test  marketing  require s tremendous  resources, it would be wasted if  the test  failed.

3. Time : A longer time is involved in experimentation. At  least one year  is the  permitted minimum  period  of research. The research may  continue for a longer period. The long  period involves  additional problems of  control  and competitive reaction. The history and maturation effects may influence the ultimate decision. The conclusion derived after a long period  may become  obsolete  to suit the current  marketing  decisions.

4. Other Problem: There are several test problems relating to  collection of data and their  interpretation. The survey and sample to be selected appropriately pose another difficult decisions. The cooperation poses another problem while collecting the data. This research  design  may not be  useful in cases where secrecy is required to compete in the market because  field research  will reveal the purpose  of research and  the completion swill adopt competitive  methods  to beat  the market.