Adopter Categories

It's pretty much agreed now that in terms of how consumers respond to new products introduced, consumers can be lumped into these five groups: Innovators (2.5%), Early adopters (13.5%) Early majority (34%), Late majority (36%) Laggards (14%).

Innovators and Early Adopters look at new products differently than the others. They want to see what's new regardless so they buy the first things out of the shoot or they want to own the latest and the coolest and sexiest product on the block.

The middle group wants to see how well it works, who else is using it, what it will do for them, etc. Will it save them time? be more accessible? save them money? They don't care so much about the bells and whistles.

The last group only buy new things when the pain of putting up with dinosaurs exceeds the pain of getting new stuff. Then a good portion of them tend to jump to the newest or nearly newest thing.

I'm a laggard. I bought my first IBM Selectric typewriter 3 years before they stopped using it. I don't like to buy new stuff when what I'm using has worked well for me. But rapid market change means I'm sitting on a sand bar watching the tide come in around me. I can only hold out for so long. But I became an early adopter regarding the social media. I'm about to de-laggard myself over texting.

Where do you fit on this continuum? If you're making a new product, make sure you now how you're going to make sure your product can cross the gap between innovators and the others.

And keep in mind that people can fall into different groups depending on the product. A person may be the first person on his block to buy one thing, but the last person to guy another type of thing. I can't come up with examples, but I hope you know what I mean.

If you want more on this read Everett C. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovation, and Geoffrey C. More, Crossing the Chasm.