Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Product adoption and diffusion
The manner in which customers adopt a new technology, a product, or a service is another
important part of a fi rm's product strategy. The adoption process is tied closely to a prod-
uct's life cycle and suggests how new products should be introduced into the market.
E. M. Rogers, using hybrid seed corn as the focus, did the classic research into the adoption-
diffusion of new products. Rogers (1995) suggested that ideas are diffused through the
market in systematic stages:
1.
Awareness
: at this stage, people have heard about the product but lack suffi cient
information to make a purchasing decision
2.
Interest
: a potential customer becomes interested enough to learn more about the product
3.
Evaluation
: the customer decides whether or not to try the product
4.
Trial
: the customer samples the product
5.
Adoption
: the customer integrates the product into a regular-use pattern
Some individuals who adopt products more quickly than others tend to be
opinion leaders.
These people are watched carefully and followed by other customers in the market. Some
opinion leaders actively attempt to infl uence others within their sphere. This group of
opinion leaders is an extremely important one to agrimarketers. And, many agribusinesses
spend considerable time and money identifying opinion leaders and working closely with
them to build favorable relationships.
As a new idea or technology is introduced into the market, Rogers found it will be adopted
in a systematic way as more and more users adopt the idea. He classifi ed users into fi ve
distinct categories according to how quickly they adopt a new idea.
Rogers's research (
Figure 7.4
)
suggests that the total number of individuals willing to try
a totally new idea is very small, perhaps about 2.5 percent of a given market.
Innovators
are
these venturesome people who like to try new ideas. They are not necessarily opinion lead-
ers; since they try so many new things, their peers may regard them as a bit unconventional.
The second wave of individuals who try a new technology are called early adopters.
Early adopters
(about 13.5 percent of a market) are respected individuals who adopt new
ideas quickly but with caution, usually after observing the experience of the innovators.
They are usually key opinion leaders in the community and are therefore highly important to
the agribusiness marketer.
2.5%
Innovators
13.5%
Early
adopters
34%
Early
majority
34%
Late
majority
16%
Laggards
Figure 7.4
Categories of new technology adopters
