Diffusion of Innovation theory

Hey there everyone, this week we’re looking into the Diffusion of Innovation theory.  Basically, this theory

claims that when something new (product or idea) comes about there is a certain sequence of events

that happen.  It describes or explains the hows and whys of what makes this product or idea spread.

Rogers (the main man who got this thing started back in 1962) tells us that we each factor into one of

five different groups.  

We begin with the innovators, these are the folks who are steady ready to find and try out all the new

things.  They do not need to see from someone else if this idea or product works well, they are the ones

who first test it.  This group only makes up about 2-3%. Let’s look at online banking. This actually

began in the 1980’s. A very small percentage of people (the innovators) took to this idea and even paid

a monthly fee to have the service (while most of the population believed this idea would fail).

Second, we have the early adopters.  This group is the next wave of testers.  They want to try the new

product or idea, but they’d prefer to see how it worked out with the innovators first.  This group makes

up approximately 13.5%. With the online banking it was about a decade before more people took to this

idea and began to adopt it.  

Third, we have one of the larger groups, making up 34%.  They are the early majority group. The

product or idea is now going mainstream and this group is ready to get in on it.  In the example of online

banking this would put us at around the mid-nineties when things started to take off. 

Next we have the late majority group, who also make up 34%.  This group is much more cautious.

They will wait until the glitches have been fixed with the product or they have witnessed the backlash

of an idea and still feel strongly about it. Again, with the online banking example, by 2005, 80% of banks

offered the service and were already shutting down many of their brick and mortar offices.  This late

majority group had now seen that this service not only worked, but would probably be their future

anyway, so they may as well go ahead and begin the transition.  

Our last group, the laggards make up 16%.  This group will finally buy into the product after the price

has gone down and/or an idea is widely spread.  Sometimes, they never buy into it. There are still a

handful of people who may never transition over to online banking, but by 2019, most of us don’t even

fancy the idea of going inside a bank when we can transfer money and auto-deposit from the comfort of,

well, anywhere.

So, how and why is this relevant?  If you understand this theory and can recognize that everything is

moving at an advanced rate than it has in the past, then you will be able to recognize who you must

reach out to first, how to get them to share their experiences and in turn allow your new product or

idea to grow at a faster rate of speed.  

This was fun guys, check in with me next week for another topic.