Consumer Behavior

Chapter 12 : Diffusion of Innovation

+The Diffusion Concept

+A Profile of Consumer Innovator

Chapter Summary

The concept of diffusion of innovation refers to the spreading of consumption of an innovation, through communication channels in a social system. An innovation is a product, service, idea, process, behavior, or any other object which is considered new by consumers. Innovations require acceptance from consumers to be successful, but they also require them to change their existing behavioral pattern and habits.

Based on change required and frequency of occurrence, innovations can be discontinuous (maximum change and rare), dynamically continuous (moderate change and infrequent), or continuous (least change and frequent) in nature. Innovations are sometimes resisted by consumers because of barriers such as value, risk, image, etc. In such a case, some modification can facilitate its acceptance.

Communication channels are the tools which help the marketer reach the consumer, and the consumer to reach out to other consumers in a social network. Information can flow through impersonal (mass media), interpersonal (salespeople), and personal channels (word-of-mouth) of communication.

A social system is a social environment in which consumers with similar beliefs co-exist. A social system has a social hierarchy and a communication network which decide the flow and speed of adoption through the social system. Time is the factor which connects the adoption process, the consumers’ innovativeness, and the rate of adoption.

The adoption process consists of five stages of consumer decision making – awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption/rejection. The longer the process and larger the number of decision makers, the longer the time taken to adopt. The innovativeness of the consumer depends on the adoption stage at which he/she is, as compared to other consumers. Based on these criteria, consumers have been classified as innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. The rate of adoption is the speed with which the innovation is being adopted by consumers. It can be slow, moderate, or fast.

Consumer innovators are identified on the basis of time elapsed after the launch or as a specific percentage of people out of total purchasers who buy early. Consumer innovators are venturesome, young, highly educated, high status and income individuals, who have an interest in new products and seek variety in life. They have low risk perception and have a positive attitude towards change. They are very sociable and in the role of opinion leaders and market mavens, they can be quite influential.

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