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Targeting of
Who are “innovators” and “innovative”
do they matter? consumers
A critical review of the evidence supporting
the targeting of “innovative” consumers 421
Heath McDonald Received August 2006
Deakin Business School, Malvern, Australia, and Revised April 2007
Accepted April 2007
Frank Alpert
University of Queensland Business School, Brisbane, Australia
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to bring together and evaluate the reasons that have historically been
advanced to justify the heavy emphasis on innovative consumers within the general context of the
adoption of products and services, and to assess the strategic benefits to be gained from targeting such
market segments.
Design/methodology/approach – The approach is critical review and analysis of the published
literature.
Findings – This paper finds that, although the benefits of identifying innovative early adopters are
not as strong and clear-cut as is often claimed, they are still sufficient to warrant further research into
methods that will accurately identify them and predict their purchasing behaviour.
Practical implications – Targeting strategies should distinguish carefully between truly
innovative consumers and other early adopters. The costs of identifying them in a particular
market need to be weighed against the potential benefits.
Originality/value – Although many studies have attempted to address the question of what drives
individual adoption behaviour, the rationale for that focus has not been well established and is rarely
critiqued. In clarifying the situation, this paper should provide guidance for academic researchers and
marketing planners.
Keywords Innovation, Consumer behaviour, Market segmentation, Marketing strategy,
Marketing planning
Paper type Conceptual paper
IMITATIVE EARLY
ADOPTERS
Act Early on Recommendation
• Provide cash flow
• May promote product to others
TRUE INNOVATORS:
Act Early and Act Independently
Often are heavy users
Can help refine product
Figure 1. Create market leader image
Summary of benefits of
innovators
Innovators Early Adopters Early Majority Late Majority
It is said that, without it, few companies could afford to make the product refinements Targeting of
and fund the marketing efforts required to spread the innovation to the wider “innovative”
community. Increasingly, such companies as Hewlett Packard and Gillette are relying
on the success of new product introductions for future growth and immediate consumers
profitability (Steenkamp et al., 1999).
Furthermore, retailers and wholesalers would be unlikely to support innovative
products for long unless innovative consumers purchased them. The growing power of 427
retailers in most economies means that they are intolerant of slowly moving products,
and often require new products to pay subsidies or be heavily supported before taking
them on (Berman, 1996; Jones and Ritz, 1991).
Put simply, failure to attract sufficient numbers of buyers in the early stage of the
product life cycle puts the organisation under considerable financial stress, and may
cause the demise of the innovation solely because it is removed from retail shelves
(Gatignon and Robertson, 1991). On the positive side, one research study focussed on
innovators, as opposed to all early adopters, found them to be less price sensitive than
later buyers (Goldsmith and Newell, 1997). If so, the practice of price skimming makes
good sense.
There is a great potential for wasting marketing resources if innovators are not
identified. Only a small proportion of potential buyers adopt on the basis of
mass-media communication alone. Therefore, initial marketing communication efforts
need to target those consumers as accurately as possible and address them directly,
assuming that the rest of the audience will be unresponsive until word-of-mouth
begins. Being able to tailor the marketing mix to innovators is often cited as the true
payoff for this research stream (Bass, 1969; Gatignon and Robertson, 1985; Goldsmith
and Flynn, 1992; Foxall, 1994; Argarwal and Prasad, 1998; Rogers, 2003).
Communication campaigns targeted at innovators can have the beneficial side effect
of building brand awareness and preference amongst a wider audience that happens to
notice them. The key strategic aim of mass communication, however, is initially to
drive innovators to act, and later encourage repeat purchase (East, 1997).
Despite the popularity and seemingly logical nature of this argument, there is some
contrary evidence in the literature. Arndt (1967), who was generally positive about the
communicative role of innovators, found that communication was not one-way but
took the form of information swapping discussions between current and potential
users. This process was not “controlling” with large numbers (46 per cent) of those
exposed to positive communications still choosing not to adopt. Labay and Kinnear
(1981) also found large groups of consumers with detailed product knowledge, very
similar to adopters, who decided not to adopt. The conclusion is that although
awareness must precede adoption, those exposed to both word of mouth and mass
media may yet still reject or delay adoption of the innovation.
If innovators are vital in spreading word-of-mouth communications, it is to be
expected that they will rate highly on opinion leadership scales. This has not
consistently been shown to be the case, with some positive results (Baumgarten, 1975)
and some negative (Robertson and Myers, 1969). Overall, the relationship has been
generally positive, but with many inconclusive findings (Subramanian and
Mittelstaedt, 1991). Poorly developed opinion leadership scales have been blamed for
these results (Flynn et al., 1996), but these could be read as indicating that many
innovators do not communicate the outcomes of their experience with others. The
propensity to do so may depend on the innovation itself. Dickerson and Gentry (1983,
p. 232) found that innovators in the field of computing were “not interested in the arts
or cooking or a great deal of social interaction” while Midgley and Dowling (1993)
found fashion innovators to be more socially active.
It has been proposed that some consumers actively distribute information on
products across a wide range of categories, and they have been labelled “market
mavens” (Feick and Price, 1987; Gladwell, 2005). This US Yiddish colloquialism is
roughly equivalent to expert, but it was found that the information distributors in
question often had little or no direct experience with the product; they were simply
opinion leaders. “Pundit” is perhaps a more accurate translation. Consumers, it appears Targeting of
can be innovators but not necessarily information spreaders, as well as being spreaders “innovative”
of information without actually adopting the products or services to which it relates.
Adding further complexity to the picture, the impact of word-of-mouth has not consumers
been shown to be consistent for all innovations. The nature of the innovation
plays a role in the amount of influence that word-of-mouth communication has on
later adopters (East and Lomax, 2005). Most consumers reduce their reliance 429
on personal sources for continuous innovations (Lambert, 1972), and it has been
shown that the level of social involvement in a product decision generally depends
on the type of product in question (Witt, 1969; Witt and Bruce, 1972; Bearden and
Etzel, 1982).
Reflecting the pro-innovation bias common to much of the research into the
adoption process (Rogers, 2003), studies so far have only looked at the role of
positive word-of-mouth. It would be more realistic to investigate the impact of both
positive and negative messages on later adopters, unless it is assumed that all early
adopters have had similarly positive experiences with the innovation. Recent studies
of the impact of word-of-mouth communication on brand choice have suggested that
negativity is both less frequent and less influential with respect to brand choice
(East and Lomax, 2005), but this has not been confirmed in the specific context of
innovation.
The “independent innovator” perspective put forward by Bass, despite its numerous
adaptations and expansions, has at its core, a simplistic view of the market operation.
The view is that the innovation is developed by an organisation, released to a naı̈ve
market, promoted by mass media and then by word-of-mouth from early users. Two
recent developments complicate this view of the adoption/diffusion process. First, the
rise of cross-national media and international travel mean that consumers are often
exposed to innovations from abroad, either through the media or first hand, long before
they are available in their home market. Secondly, improvements in communication
technology, most notably the rise of the internet, have allowed word-of-mouth
communication to occur globally and almost instantaneously. The formation of special
interest groups means that consumers can access word-of-mouth communications even
before the launch of products. The popularity of recent movie-related web sites, which
host previews, gossip and reviews up to 12 months before their scheduled release,
illustrates the complex nature of new-product related information sources today. The
impact of internet-based discussions on product adoption has already been discussed
by Sussan (2006). Whereas being well-travelled and well-connected was once the
domain of a select few, and a distinguishing characteristic of innovators (Rogers, 2003),
those are now characteristics of a much wider sector of society.
In conclusion, the flow of information throughout a market place today is
complicated and rapid and, though innovators would still seem to play an important
role in communications, their influence may not be as profound as some researchers
believe. Early buyers as a whole, though, are responsible for generating word-of-mouth
and setting an example for more conservative later buyers.
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Corresponding author
Heath McDonald can be contacted at: heath.mcdonald@deakin.edu.au