Using Demonstration to Increase New Product Acceptance: Controlling Demonstration Time

One of the major ways that manufacturers decrease the uncertainty that is involved in making a choice between competing brands of experience goods is through demonstrations of their new products. The authors investigate the issue of the length of a demonstration and, in particular, provide answers to the following three questions: What is the optimal length of a demonstration? Does the optimal length vary between different products? Does the optimal length vary between different consumers? They analyze 225 cases from the motor vehicle industry and 46 cases from the computer industry with regard to number and length of demonstrations offered and relate the findings to their theoretical model. The empirical results yield strong support for their theory. They also find that most firms offered a longer demonstration than needed and failed to use an appropriate segmentation technique for optimizing the demonstration with respect to different consumer groups.