One of the long understood principles about new technology from a marketing perspective is that customers can be classified as innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. The innovators jump in with new technology almost immediately and there is a time delay before the other classifications join in.
In a rapidly changing technology environment like the Internet, the marketplace can become perpetually jumbled. When things move fast there never seems to be a time when everyone is on the same page. With rapid change, laggards might be just adapting to technology that innovators abandoned a long time back.
For example, when websites and email were the new things, the innovators jumped in, but have since moved on to the latest and greatest technologies which for now are based on mobile devices like the iPad and hyper-smart phones. Some ‘experts’ are saying that websites are becoming irrelevant. But I don’t believe that. Websites are just not as effective for some types of people while becoming more effective at reaching other people.
Relative to websites, the laggards are just now coming onboard. For example, e-Commerce has long been accepted by most, but is just now becoming a comfortable environment for the slow adopters. And in between the mainstream still searches and surfs for web pages of interest and the majority have become comfortable with Web 2.0 which has morphed into a variety of Social Media technologies.
So what should businesses do to cope with this jumbled marketplace? Should businesses just play in the middle ground where the majority is comfortable? Should they establish themselves as leaders by catering to the innovator customers? Should they ignore the laggards as not worth the effort?
What to do is tricky business with no perfect answer. If you sell a trend setting product like the latest generation smart phone, then you need to be in front of the innovative and early adopter customers by advertising where they are hanging out online and via mobile devices.
But if you sell a mature or commodity universally needed mainstream product (TVs, cars, appliances, travel, personal products, etc, etc) you want to reach people in all classifications as they are all potential customers. That suggests you need to have a presence at all stages of the technology’s maturity. This implies you need to be using email, websites, banner ads, search marketing, SEO, social engagement, mobile promotions, and basically all available established and new digital publication methods.
In the end, each marketing situation is different with a lot to consider including your product’s characteristics and the target demographic you are going after. Businesses will profit from consultation with a professional Digital Marketing organization to determine the best marketing approach – not too little or too much and where to be seen. We can help.
Tags: Digital Marketing, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Socail Media
