Question

One of the basic elements of Roger's diffusion theory is the concept of adoption process which deals with the mental stages through which an individual passes from the time of his or her first knowledge of an innovation to the time of product adoption or purchase. Briefly describe these stages giving examples of Apples' iPhone.

Answer 1

Roger's diffusion theory is basically about the the mindset of different categories of people in society when they adopt or try to use a particular new product in the market. This theory explains about the thoght process of people when they come across a newly introducyes idea/product around them. There are some group/categories who adopt the product in the initial stages after launch and for them very little or infact no effort is required to persuade them to use a new product and also there are other categories that require extra-ordinary effort on the part of the marketer to convince them to use their product even for a single time. These categories are widely classified into five different groups -

Innovators - These are the people who are fond of innovation inthe market. They are always ready to be one of the first user of a new product in the market. No effort is required on the part of the marketer/introducing company to let these people start using their product.

As in the case Apple iphone, there are certain groups of people who just buy the apple iphone only after the they come across the news of its launch. They dont do the market research or even think of its specifications before purchasing the product.

Early Adopters - This category of people belong to a class called opinion leaders in the society. They represent the population and embrace to adopt the change in their lifestyle. Strategies to attract such population include how to manuals and just a small information about the implementation of technology. They do not require any efffort to convice them.

In the case of Apple iphone, there is a separate class of people who like to purchase the product to influence other social class of people so that they would also the newly introduced version.

Early Majority - This category of people do not include leaders in the market. They adopt the product before the majority of population start using the product. Strategies to convinve such group of people include success stories and innovation's effectiveness.

As an example of Apple iphone, there are early adopters who purchase the new version before majority of people come across the phone and purchases it.

Late Majority - They are the people who adopt the product only after it gets adopted by the majority of population. They are skeptical about change in their lifestyle. Strategies to persuade such people is the information about how may people have adopted the product and successfully using it.

As in case of Apple iphone, there are certain people who purchase the phone only after it gets used by a majority of customers and they make the purchase only after knowing the statistics about how many people are succcessfully using phone.

Laggards - These tare the people who do not want to adopt any change in their lifestyle. These people accomodate any change only after getting pressurised by the family members, peer groups and other social class of people. Strategies to convince such people include statistics about use, fear appeals and pressure from other categories of adopters.

In case of Apple iphone, there are laggards who have so many reasons for not using the product and they do not want to use even after getting family pressure, peer pressure or pressure to use the buy the product from other class of adopters.