The Consumer Adoption Process 169
products more attention from the market); or late entry(waiting until after a
competitor has entered lets the competitor bear the cost of educating the market
and may reveal problems to avoid).
➤ Where (geographic strategy).The company must decide whether to launch the new
product in a single locality, a region, several regions, the national market, or the
international market. Smaller companies often select one city for a blitz campaign,
entering other cities one at a time; in contrast, large companies usually launch
within a whole region and then move to the next region, although companies with
national distribution generally launch new models nationally. Firms are increasingly
rolling out new products simultaneously across the globe, which raises new
challenges in coordinating activities and obtaining agreement on strategy and
tactics.
➤ To whom (target-market prospects).Within the rollout markets, the company must target
its initial distribution and promotion to the best prospect groups. Presumably, the
company has already profiled the prime prospects—who would ideally be early
adopters, heavy users, and opinion leaders who are able to be reached at a low
cost.^16 The company should rate the various prospect groups on these
characteristics and then target the best prospect group to generate strong sales as
soon as possible, motivate the sales force, and attract further prospects.
➤ How (introductory market strategy).The company must develop an action plan for
introducing the new product into the rollout markets. To coordinate the many
activities involved in launching a new product, management can use network-
planning techniques such as critical path scheduling(CPS), which uses a master chart
to show the simultaneous and sequential activities that must take place to launch
the product. By estimating how much time each activity takes, the planners can
estimate the project’s completion time. A delay in any activity on the critical path
will delay the entire project.^17THE CONSUMER ADOPTION PROCESS
Adoptionis an individual’s decision to become a regular user of a product. How do
potential customers learn about new products, try them, and adopt or reject them? In
the past, companies used a mass-market approachto introduce new products, on the
assumption that most people are potential buyers. Yet consumers have different levels
of interest in new products and brands. The theory of innovation diffusion and con-
sumer adoption helps marketers to identify and target early adopters—people who
adopt products before the majority of consumers in the market.
Stages in the Adoption Process
Aninnovationrefers to any good, service, or idea that is perceivedby someone as new.
The idea may have a long history, but it is an innovation to the person who sees it as
new. Innovations take time to spread through the social system. Rogers defines the
innovation diffusion processas “the spread of a new idea from its source of invention or
creation to its ultimate users or adopters.”^18 The consumer-adoption process focuses
on the mental process through which an individual passes from first hearing about an
innovation to final adoption.
Adopters of new products have been observed to move through five stages:
(1)awareness(consumer becomes aware of the innovation but has no information
about it); (2)interest(consumer is stimulated to seek information about the innova-
tion); (3)evaluation(consumer considers whether to try the innovation); (4)trial