MarketingManagement.pdf

featured images of the iMac alongside slogans such as “Mental Floss” and “I

think, therefore iMac.”^41

To coordinate the many activities involved in launching a new product, manage-

ment can use network-planning techniques such as critical path scheduling. Critical

path scheduling (CPS)calls for developing a master chart showing the simultaneous

and sequential activities that must take place to launch the product. By estimating

how much time each activity takes, the planners estimate completion time for the

entire project. Any delay in any activity on the critical path will cause the project to

be delayed. If the launch must be completed earlier, the planner searches for ways to

reduce time along the critical path.^42

HE CONSUMER-ADOPTION PROCESS

How do potential customers learn about new products, try them, and adopt or reject

them? (Adoptionis an individual’s decision to become a regular user of a product.) The

consumer-adoption processis later followed by the consumer-loyalty process, which is the

concern of the established producer.

Years ago, new-product marketers used amass-market approachin launching prod-

ucts. They would distribute a product everywhere and advertise it to everyone on the

assumption that most people are potential buyers. This approach had two main draw-

backs: It called for heavy marketing expenditures, and it involved many wasted expo-

sures to people who are not potential consumers. These drawbacks led to a second

approach,heavy-user target marketing, where the product is initially aimed at heavy users.

This approach makes sense, provided that heavy users are identifiable and are early

adopters. But even within the heavy-user group, consumers differ in interest in new

products and brands; many heavy users are loyal to existing brands. Many new-prod-

uct marketers now aim at consumers who are early adopters. According to early-adopter

theory:

■ Persons within a target market differ in the amount of elapsed time between

their exposure to a new product and their trying it.

Developing

Marketing

(^354) Strategies
T