Understanding customer adoption trends is crucial for developing effective new product marketing strategies. It might be challenging, if not impossible, to sell to each kind of adapter without having a good knowledge of their objectives. There are five different categories of product adopters. This article offers insight into each category. They are risk-takers and trendsetters and have a strong influence on the success or failure of a new product.
The best manner to market early adopters comprise understanding what they require, meeting them face to face, providing with a product they could use instantly and telling a story.
Did You Know? Approximately 13.5% of people are early adopters.
Brief Overview On Early Adopters
An early adopter is someone who strives for a new product before most consumers. Early adopters are common for technology products. They provide feedback to the vendor and help them to refine the product features, design, distribution, and support.
One who tests new products ahead of most consumers is an early adopter. Technology products tend to attract them more frequently.
The early adopter will adopt the products at the earliest possible after launch. They are interested in all the new items and innovations being introduced daily. They are continually anticipating the release of new hardware designs on the market, the current edition of the intensive software that appears to be revolutionary, or a new form of service that is the first in its class. In other words, these early adopters will try to accept everything before their contemporaries. They provide you with your initial impression of the market; they are practically a measure of how successful your start has been.
Early adopters are engaged when presented with the prospect of learning and leading in adopting new technology. They generate psychological reward signals and feel pleasure and motivation as contrasted to the dread of failure that sceptical later adopters may harbour.
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Important Terms Discussed
Dissemination Of Innovation Theory - A theory called dissemination of innovations aims to explain how, why, and how quickly new ideas and technologies spread. The use of new social programmes or social policies is implied by the phrase "dissemination of innovation" in terms of community psychology. As a result, it also suggests the possibility of widespread change.
Product Acceptance Curve- The product adoption curve is a graphic representation of how various demographic groups have changed over time in their willingness to try out your product. The curve and its phases tell you how and when to target different groups of your ideal customers rather than who you should sell your product to.
Importance of Early Adopters
Customers who are early adopters accept products before the majority of other consumers. These adopter types are classified based on the customer journey and the dissemination of innovation theory. According to the dispersion or product acceptance curve, the inventors buy the item as early as it is released. The product is then accepted by the early adopters, followed by the early majority, late majority, and laggards. As a result, if a consumer is an early adopter, the product or service was well received during its initial debut.
Types of Adopters for Innovative Products
The social framework for those who accept current innovations is depicted in the above diagram. The adoption of innovations fluctuates during the duration of a product's life cycle.
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1. Innovators
Innovators are passionate change agents among their peers who enjoy technology for its own sake. They are curious about new concepts, which propels them from small peer groups into larger innovator groups.
Innovators holds a high position of value as they accept the initial hiccups and issues that come with innovation and for being open to finding workarounds
2. Early Adopters
These are the most important persons in any market arena, and they frequently provide thoughtful opinions to other potential adopters. They may be quite active on social media and frequently publish critiques and other articles about new things they like or detest. Early adopters typically have a reasonably good social standing, fair access to resources, higher levels of education, and an acceptable approach to risk. They do not, however, take as many chances as innovators and prefer to make more informed decisions about whether or not to invest in a given product.
3. Early Majority
The early majority is the next type of adopter to appear as a product gains mass market appeal. This type of adopter is risk-averse and wants to know that their, often limited, resources are being spent appropriately on items. They are, nevertheless, persons with higher-than-average social status, and while they are not opinion makers in their own right, they will frequently interact with thought leaders and rely on their ideas when making adoption decisions.
4. Late Majority
The late majority is less confident in product uptake than the previous three divisions of adopters. They are risk-averse and prefer to focus their resources on tried-and-true solutions. As one might imagine, this group of adopters has less money, poorer social position, and fewer interactions with opinion leaders and innovators than other groups. The late majority rarely provides intellectual leadership in a profession.
5. Laggards
Laggards are the last to come to an adoption party, and their presence usually indicates that a commodity is in decline. Laggards prefer conventional ways of performing tasks and are fearful of change and risk. Laggards typically have low functional status and rarely seek ideas outside of their little social circle.
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Characteristics of Early Adopters
Early adopters aspire and require to be first, despite their theorized seeming position of advantage in society. They would want to be credited with popularizing a novel concept, application, or service to increase their social media profile and retain their peer esteem.
Early adopters have the following characteristics:
- Adopters are consumers who actively listen to a marketer's campaign. As a result, marketing must be primarily created with them in mind.
- They are the always-searching kind of consumers, constantly looking for new opportunities. They are easily bored and eager to try new items.
- However, this comes with both high gain and high risk. Adopters are the primary source of word-of-mouth and product display in use. The disadvantage is that if the adapter has a wrong view of the product, this harms both future products and the existing product's reputation.
Early Adopter Marketing Strategy
Here are a few tips for successfully marketing to early adopters:
- Make the most of the product launch through early adopters, however cautiously.
- Prevent sales promotions right after debut, instead focusing on direct sales to early adopters.
- Emphasize product distinction through distinctive presentation and mention of distinguishing attributes.
- Fill the entire merchandising space with the most recent merchandise.
- Organize appealing events showcasing new products.
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Early Adopters Examples
- The corporation 'Apple' is the ideal example to comprehend early adopters. Apple is now one of the world's four largest corporations, and early adopters have played a vital role in its success. When the iPhone was released in 2007, it cost $600 approx.
This was a substantial sum of money and a huge deal because the consumers had to invest wisely in things they had no prior experience with. Nonetheless, many early adopters were not hesitant to purchase it. Even though it was only two months after its release, the iPhone's price dropped considerably. The early adopters acquired this new technology before their competitors as they wanted to be the first to sample this new product when it was released to the market. Although they are unaware of the new technology or features that will be included or how useful it will be, they buy the I-phones once they are released.
- Another example is Sony, the gaming giant. Sony has managed to maintain its dominance in the gaming industry throughout the last decade. This market domination appears to be stable for the foreseeable future. This is owed, in part, to their precise marketing strategy. They flatly refuse to provide any early information. As a result, most early buyers were obliged to purchase the PS5 through traditional channels. It also resulted in a significant increase in video reviews and first impressions.
- Graham Stephan: This youtube channel focuses primarily on financial and personal investing; Graham provides his direct knowledge of each business on this channel. As a result, he gained sponsorships from major players such as Robin Hood and Webull.
- Linus Technology news: Linus is a seasoned YouTuber. He has over 13 million subscribers who want to hear his thoughts on anything IT. Many providers offer him free samples and trial products. His reviews provide them with user input, not to mention exposure and a pool of potential clients.
- In India, early adopters are more likely to be in the 18-34 age group than in comparison to other surveyed markets.
Conclusion
The success of any new product or service is dependent on early adopters. They are responsible for removing some of the restrictions that most people may have about embracing a new product by trying to see how it performs. They also let you test and develop your product before it is released to the general public. As a result, it is critical to cultivate your product's early adopters and collaborate with them to achieve mainstream adoption of your item.
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