Why You Should Care About the Diffusion of Innovation Theory
Have you ever wondered how
you always get suckered into buying new gadgets? Well there is actually a
theory behind it all that makes you purchase the latest trend. The theory is
called the Diffusion of Innovation. It is when companies reinvent their
products to meet the needs of the population. The product goes down the chain
of consumers from early adopters to the last group called laggards. I will
explain each group throughout the rest of my blog. Let me explain the chain of
consumers, for example, the cellphone industry is one of today’s most rapidly
evolving consumer markets. Cellphone companies will add and change things to
reinvent the new and improved cellphone. The early adopters latch on to the new
innovations. They are the first consumers to go out and purchase the new items
once the items hit the stores. They might even purchase the items online before
they even hit the store shelves. The early majority wait a bit until they have
proof and are convinced that the product is worth spending their hard earned
money. Once the early majority has adopted the new innovation, the late
majority is shortly to follow them in fear of what the early adopters and the
early majority will think of them. They are forced to give into peer pressure. The last group is the
laggards. The laggards do not care about the peer pressure and probably feel a
sense of accomplishment by not giving in and will most likely try to argue
against the innovation. They will wait until the product has basically lost its
appeal before they give in and buy the product. By the time the laggards
actually do buy, another “new and improved” version is already finding its way
to the market. The key to getting each group to buy the new innovation is to know
and understand each group you are communicating to in order to appeal to their
needs and interests. This will help
determine what it is that the consumers of that group are wanting in the
product or innovation. (Robinson, 2009) Cellphone companies have gotten very
good at appealing to all the groups and their personalities. In an effort to
sell products to all consumer groups the cellphone companies still keep a
limited selection of the basic phones on the markets and in the stores for the
laggards. They also offer the more technologically advanced cellphones for the
middle groups until they are ready to adopt the new smartphones. Then of course
the early adopters will go ahead and buy the newest products. Greg Orr calls
this concept the “tipping point” concept. He states, “the idea suggest that for
good or bad, change can be promoted rather easily in a social system through a
domino effect (2003).” His statement suggests that is exactly what happens
during these groups. Once the early adopters start to buy the products, the
rest follow after creating a domino effect leaving the laggards at the very end.
What is the best way for people to get this information about a new innovation
you might ask? A lot of what we learn about new products trickles down to us
through friends and family. Sometimes it is through a social networking site
such as Facebook or Twitter. For example, my sister-in-law is a technology
guru. She must learn about and have the latest gadgets. You could say she is an
early adopter when it comes to technology. So when she told me that I should
buy a touchscreen Android phone, I was reluctant. I was not sure about the
touchscreen phone for a while, but I started to play with hers and fell in love
with it. Thanks to her, I went out and bought the device. I could not imagine
my life without my new phone. What makes the Diffusion of Innovation work so
well? Les Robinson suggests that it is because of the following five qualities:
relative advantage, compatibility with existing values, simple and easy to use,
trialability factor, and observable results. Relative advantage is meeting the
needs of the consumer. Keeping the product compatible to existing products will
be adopted more rapidly than those products that are not compatible. Sony had a
bit of compatibility issue with its play station 3, some PS2 games could be
played on the new system but some could not, this most likely caused some consumers
to purchase a different game system. Consumers want simple and easy to use
products. The harder the product is to use, the less likely it will sell. If
consumers can test the product on a trial basis, then the product is more
likely to sell. Also, the trial basis allows the company to hear feedback on
the product so they can make the necessary changes to meet the needs of the
population. Of course the social factor plays a key role to move the innovation through
the groups that were discussed previously. If a friend sees another friend
using a product or innovation then odds are that friend will adopt the product
or innovation too. (2009) Greg Orr suggests that people are highly influenced
by opinion leaders. For example, you could say since I decided to trust my
sister-in-law’s opinion on a touchscreen Android phone, that she is my opinion
leader. The opinion leader does not necessary have to be someone famous or on
the television or of high authority. It is most likely someone in your social
group that you trust. It could be your best friend or a family member. Social
networking sites help spread the word of new innovations as well. If you post
about a new product such as the new version of Kindle on your Facebook page and
state how much you love it, all of your friends will see your post. Then if
another friend comments or repost it to their page, all of their friends will
see it as well. Therefore, before you know it, the new product is all over the
internet. So the next time you find yourself buying a new cellphone when there
was nothing wrong with the one you had, you can thank the process of Diffusion
of Innovation.
Diffusion of Innovations (1995)
http://www.stanford.edu/class/symbsys205/Diffusion%20of%20Innovations.htm
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