INNOVATIVE PROJECT 2

Launch Plan

When thinking about the market for innovative products, it is important to understand customer adoption
patterns. What each type of innovation adopter values, influences how you will approach them.
Communication scholar and sociologist Everett M. Rogers described 5 types of innovation adopters and
placed them in the innovation adoption lifecycle.

(from: Everett M. Rogers, “Diffusion of Innovations”)

In the following passages you will find a brief description of each category of adopters and their values.
However, it is important to keep in mind that like with any other generalisation, not all members of each
of these types conform to the general patters of that type. You should use these categories for planning
the market entry, without stereotyping the individuals.

Innovators

Innovators are your first customers; they want to try a new product. They are open to taking risks and like
implementing new ideas and ways of doing things, while being aware that some products they adopt
might not deliver the promised benefits (in other words, they will not feel cheated if your product
ultimately does not deliver, they are happy to take the risk with you). Because of the small market size at
that point, new products are usually more expensive at the moment when released. This points to the
fact that innovators are usually wealthier than other categories of innovation. Often, they have emotional
connection of some kind to the field in which the new product is produced, and they keep close ties to
other innovators in their field. These are often very close-knit circles.
Early Adopters

Early adopters are the most influential people in the market space – they are, what we would call, the
influencers. Deservingly or not, they carry certain “thought leadership” in the circle of their followers,
they are very active in social media, and their reviews of new products have a lot of weight. They approach
risk reasonably: they are willing to take it, but considerably less than the innovators. Their strategy for risk
taking involves getting informed in the buying process. They usually have somewhat higher social status
and better access to finances than the later adopters.

Early Majority

The early majority is risk-averse: they spend their resources wisely. They are in contact with “thought
leaders”, whose opinions they will partially rely on, but they will research the features and use-scenarios
of the new products on their own. While their resources are more limited, they usually have better than
average social status.

Late Majority

The late majority will invest only in tried and tested solutions, as they have less money. Equally, they do
not interact much with the early adopters or with the innovators. They do not like risks. They usually have
lower social status and do not engage in thought leadership. They are characterised by scepticism towards
innovation and innovative products, but not necessarily by adversity towards novelties.

Laggards

As the name suggest, laggards are late-arrivals. They are traditionalists, they deeply dislike risk and adjust
to change very rarely. They live in closed social sets, very rarely listening to people outside of their narrow
group. They might be older and less familiar with technology, but they have often good financial resources
(at least mid-level) and social status.

Disclaimer: Keep in mind – these are generalisations. There will be high-income, well-educated, risk-taking
laggards, as well as low-income, poorly-educated, non-thought leader early adopters. There are also
plenty of older people familiar with technology.

The influence of adoption types on product adoption strategy

The standard model (which you might want to challenge in your case) tells us the following.

You first target the innovators. And you will do so prior to the product launch, as these people can be very
useful during the product development: you can use them to develop prototypes of your product. They
can give you very useful insights, be involved in early trials and support you in the development process.
They will not ask for many features and will be happy to be involved in the process, before you launch to
the mass market.

Next, you will target the early adopters – they should also be engaged before the official mass market
launch, as they, too, can participate in your research and give you very useful feedback on the early
versions of your product. You want to make sure that the mass-market version of your product is tailored
to their likes, as they will be crucial to gain the wider influencers’ support. They will be interested in
learning technical details, your development experience, and anything they can share to their followers,
to substantiate their position as thought leaders. It pays off to make sure this group really likes you, your
values and your product.

There is a chasm separating the early adopters and the early majority. Most new products crash, because
they fail to make the transition between these two categories. This transition is often referred to as
crossing the chasm.

For the early majority you will employ a more general marketing approach, combining it with
recommendation system developed in communication with the early adopters. This particular group may
require you to do some product iterations and improvements you did not necessarily plan in advance.
And finally, at the moment when your brand and your product have been established, the late majority
arrives. In order to reach them, you will most probably not need aggressive campaigns, but rather
messaging and product placement strategies, that will help them choose your product over others
(promotions, special offers, etc.).

In many cases, it remains to be seen if targeting laggards directly makes sense economically, as by the
time they adopt the new product, it might be already going out of market. One should also keep in mind
that often pricing and general awareness will attract laggards, with no need for additional marketing
actions.

(text adapted from:

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/understanding-early-adopters-and-customer-
adoption-patterns)

This is how your market share grows by moving through the five different categories of innovation
adopters:
Your assignments are:

1. Given your buyer’s personas, try to think which segments of the market would belong to which of
the five categories of innovation adopters. Explain why.
2. For your project, quantify all five market segments (determine the total size of the market for
each of the five segments). Explain how you arrived at those numbers.
3. How will you include innovators and early adopters in user research? If you have not done so
already, when do you plan to do it?
4. Devise a concrete plan (define steps) on how you plan to approach and engage innovators and
early adopters. Choose your metrics and set KPIs. Define the timeframe.
5. Devise a concrete plan (define steps) on how you plan to approach and engage the early majority.
Make clear how you will use the early adopters to connect with the early majority. Choose your
metrics and set KPIs. Define the timeframe.

This video might serve as a good starting point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiNoNYLBabA

For your next sprint (15.12.), in relation to these assignments, you do not need to submit any written work
in advance. You will use the mentor session as an opportunity to comment with your mentor on your first
research thoughts, especially for the questions 1-3 above. Please ask of your mentors then&there, if you
need any clarification.

You will use your research to produce the last written deliverable, the launch plan, which is due 26.01.
The launch plan as a document will consist of the description of the market in terms of different categories
of innovation adopters (do not forget to quantify them in absolute numbers), and your plan (questions 4
and 5) how you will reach the first three categories. You do not include in your plans the late majority and
laggards. We will talk about them in the next semester. Please email the draft of your launch plan by 9:00
on 25 January at lab@algebra.hr.

All your final deliverables (including the launch plan) are due 4 February.