Marketing Management, Millenium Edition - epiheirimatikotita.gr

The Consumer Adoption Process 169➤➤➤products more attention from the market); or late entry (waiting until after acompetitor has entered lets the competitor bear the cost of educating the marketand may reveal problems to avoid).Where (geographic strategy). The company must decide whether to launch the newproduct in a single locality, a region, several regions, the national market, or theinternational market. Smaller companies often select one city for a blitz campaign,entering other cities one at a time; in contrast, large companies usually launchwithin a whole region and then move to the next region, although companies withnational distribution generally launch new models nationally. Firms are increasinglyrolling out new products simultaneously across the globe, which raises newchallenges in coordinating activities and obtaining agreement on strategy andtactics.To whom (target-market prospects). Within the rollout markets, the company must targetits initial distribution and promotion to the best prospect groups. Presumably, thecompany has already profiled the prime prospects—who would ideally be earlyadopters, heavy users, and opinion leaders who are able to be reached at a lowcost. 16 The company should rate the various prospect groups on thesecharacteristics and then target the best prospect group to generate strong sales assoon as possible, motivate the sales force, and attract further prospects.How (introductory market strategy). The company must develop an action plan forintroducing the new product into the rollout markets. To coordinate the manyactivities involved in launching a new product, management can use networkplanningtechniques such as critical path scheduling (CPS), which uses a master chartto show the simultaneous and sequential activities that must take place to launchthe product. By estimating how much time each activity takes, the planners canestimate the project’s completion time. A delay in any activity on the critical pathwill delay the entire project. 17THE CONSUMER ADOPTION PROCESSAdoption is an individual’s decision to become a regular user of a product. How dopotential customers learn about new products, try them, and adopt or reject them? Inthe past, companies used a mass-market approach to introduce new products, on theassumption that most people are potential buyers. Yet consumers have different levelsof interest in new products and brands. The theory of innovation diffusion and consumeradoption helps marketers to identify and target early adopters—people whoadopt products before the majority of consumers in the market.Stages in the Adoption ProcessAn innovation refers to any good, service, or idea that is perceived by someone as new.The idea may have a long history, but it is an innovation to the person who sees it asnew. Innovations take time to spread through the social system. Rogers defines theinnovation diffusion process as “the spread of a new idea from its source of invention orcreation to its ultimate users or adopters.” 18 The consumer-adoption process focuseson the mental process through which an individual passes from first hearing about aninnovation 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 informationabout it); (2) interest (consumer is stimulated to seek information about the innovation);(3) evaluation (consumer considers whether to try the innovation); (4) trial