Early Adopters Take One Step Ahead

In 1962, Everett M. Rogers introduced the phrase ‘early adopter’ in his theory and book called Diffusion of Innovations. Its fifth edition was published in 2003. Diffusion of Innovations is a theory of how, why, and at what rate new technology spreads. Of the groups he studied, early adopters made up 13.5 percent. A small minority of the group he called innovators turned out to be the people who were most likely to develop new technologies, let alone adopt them.

According to Rogers’ theory, early adopters and innovators have counterparts—laggards and luddities—at the other end of the spectrum. “Laggards” are slow or reluctant to embrace new technology due to disinterest or financial limitations, while “luddities” fear new technology because of the belief it will threaten their jobs.

Here is an excerpt from Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations theory that explains this further:

“Early adopters are a more integrated part of the local system than are innovators. Whereas innovators are cosmopolites, early adopters are localites. This adopter category, more than any other, has the greatest degree of opinion leadership in most systems. Potential adopters look to early adopters for advice and information about the innovation. This adopter category is generally sought by change agents as a local missionary for speeding the diffusion process. Because early adopters are not too far ahead of the average individual in innovativeness, they serve as a role-model for many other members of a social system. The early adopter is respected by his or her peers, and is the embodiment of successful, discrete use of new ideas. The early adopter knows that to continue to earn this esteem of colleagues and to maintain a central position in the communication networks of the system, he or she must make judicious innovation-decisions. The early adopter decreases uncertainty about a new idea by adopting it, and then conveying a subjective evaluation of the innovation to near-peers through interpersonal networks.”

Early adopters are more eager and willing to try or buy new technology sooner than their competitors. The same concept applies to commercial printers: Kelmscott Communications, located in Aurora, Ill., has been willing to adopt new technology. Kelmscott Communications has been creating data driven, personalized marketing campaigns before many of its competitors. This technology has made them successful in the printing industry.

“Kelmscott Communications’ focus is to provide solutions for our customers. These solutions are print and electronic-based (i.e., e-mail, text, Web). Kelmscott has been successfully by both developing solutions and, perhaps more importantly, partnering with our customers to develop the right solutions. One-to-one marketing is about right message, at the right time, to the right audience but it doesn’t address HOW the customer or prospect wants to respond to an offer. We talk in depth with our customer about providing the right response options for their audience. Personalized URLs are part of the answer to a void in traditional response methods,” explained Scott Voris, president of Kelmscott Communications. He also spoke about how Kelmscott Communications found a different way to reach targeted audiences through text messages. “We’ve embraced different ways to reach people,” he said.

Making the Choice

There are risks involved in adopting new technology early, and “investing in new technologies is not about ‘if you build it, they will come.’ Investing in new technologies is about successfully partnering with your customers to develop the right solutions at the right time. It is about making smart business decisions that differentiate our services from our competitors,” Voris clarified.

Companies can be early adopters even in tough economic conditions. Successful organizations are always challenging themselves to develop new and better services for their customers. It is tougher in these current economic conditions, but the needs are still there (if not greater), he pointed out.