Product testing

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.

Product testing might be accomplished by a manufacturer, an independent laboratory, a government agency, etc.

[2] 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.

[3] 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.

Lawmakers typically introduce government regulation when the industry's voluntary system will not or can not solve a serious problem.

[7] A trade association may also facilitate compliance testing or certification that a particular manufacturer's products meet certain standards.

[6] Industry voluntary standards are typically minimal performance criteria with no reference to quality.

[7] An example of industry regulation could be Underwriters Laboratories' founding in the United States in 1894 and its creation of standards with reference to the National Electrical Code published in 1897 are early examples of standards being made with reference to government regulation.