Lecture 10

Question 1

Explain the difference between adoption and diffusion of innovation

Answer 1

Adoption

• Micro process
• Concerned with how individual consumers decide whether to accept or reject a new product

Diffusion

• Macro process
• Concerned with the spread of a new product (innovation) from its source to the consuming public

Ability of marketers to identify and reach this important group of consumers plays a major role in the success or failure of new product introductions

Question 2

Explain the product-oriented way of delivering new product innovations and its continuum

Answer 2

Product-oriented
= focuses on the features inherent in the product itself and on the effects these features are likely to have on consumers’ established usage patterns
** Continuous innovation:
- involves modification or improvement to existing product eg. new microsoft
- Least disruptive
**Dynamically continuous innovation:
- involves new or modified products for established behaviours or needs eg. dvd players, blu-ray
- Mildly disruptive
** Discontinuous innovation:
- requires consumers to adopt new behaviour patterns eg. airplanes, the internet
- Highly disruptive

Question 3

Define consumer innovators

Answer 3

= consumer innovators are the relatively small group of consumers who are the earliest purchasers of a new product but also depends on the status of the new product under investigation eg. if a new product is an innovation for the first three months of its availability, then the consumer who purchases it during this time is an innovator

• Focus on the timing of adoption
• > First 2.5% of social system who adopt
• > Those who adopt in first three months of availability

Innovativeness as personality trait = degree to which an individual makes innovation decisions independently of the communicated experiences of others

• Example of vicarious innovation: necessary but not sufficient, for the early adoption of an innovation (actualised innovation)
• Innovativeness in problem solving = innovativeness occurs through the adaptation of accepted methods to more creative new means of problem solving (accepting an innovation)

Can consist of two dimensions

• Cognitive: deals in part with the need for problem solving
• Sensory: deals with novelty seeking and experimentation

Question 4

Outline the five features of consumer innovators

Answer 4

1. Interested (high involvement) in the product category
   - Innovators are more interested than late or non-adopters
   - > Eg. early adopters of products containing non-fat synthetic oil were found to have a high interest in these because of health and diet concerns compared to late adopters
   - Innovators are morel likely to seek information concerning their specific interests from a varity of informal and mass-media sources
   - More likely to give greater deliberation to purchase of new products in their area of interest
2. Act as opinion leaders
   - Enthusiastic early-adopters will become product/brand evangelists
   - Innovators provide other consumers with information and advice about new products and that those who receive such advice frequently follow it (often influences the acceptance/rejection of new products)
   - Products that dont stimulate much excitement (positive or negative) won’t generate much word of mouth, limiting diffusion
   - Marketer must rely on mass media and personal selling to influence future purchasers – absence of informal influence also likely to result in a slower rate of acceptance of the product and can therefore influence eventual success or failure
3. Personality traits
   - Higher openness to experience
   - > Non innovators find new products threatening to the extent they prefer to delay purchase until its success has been clearly established
   - Higher need for uniqueness
   - > New products (branded and unbranded) that represent a greater change in a persons consumption habits were viewed as superior when it came to satisfying this need
   - Higher extraversion
   - > Seek more variety
   - Inner-directed social character
   - > Rely on their own values or standards when making a decision about a new product
   - > Non-innovators are other-directed, relying on others for guidance on how to respond to a new product rather than trusting their own personal values/standards
4. Perceive less risk with new innovations
   - Using new products involves an element of ‘risk’
   - > Innovators are less likely to perceive new products as risky
   - > More likely to run the risk of a poor product choice in order to increase their exposure to new products that will be satisfying
5. Use innovativeness
   - Innovators will often find unique uses for a product
   - > Eg. aquafaba can be whipped to produce vegan-friendly meringues