Simulated Test Marketing (STM) systems combine consumer reaction to new product initiatives with marketing plan information to forecast likely sales volume. Developed in the 1970s and refined over the next 20 years, STM has supplanted traditional in-market testing as the predominant method used by packaged goods manufacturers to evaluate new products, line extensions, and other new business opportunities prior to large-scale in-market introduction. Relative to traditional test markets, STM’s are faster, less expensive, more secure, and more accurate with regard to their forecasting capability. Today, most consumer packaged goods companies use STM’s to screen their new ideas early in the development process, so they can identify the ideas with the highest potential and allocate more effort and resources to them. Then, when the initiative is further along in the development process, STM’s are utilized again to provide an accurate estimates of sales, product and marketing plan optimization, and diagnostic findings to assist the overall business/strategic decision to launch (or not).