Читать книгу Digital Marketing - Annmarie Hanlon - Страница 21

In 1962 Everett Rogers published a book entitled Diffusion of Innovations, which was based on the two-step flow of communications and explored the conditions that increased or decreased the likelihood of product adoption.

In this model, based on how a product gains momentum and spreads or diffuses through a group, Rogers proposed five adopter categories – (1) innovators; (2) early adopters; (3) early majority; (4) late majority; (5) laggards – which considered the time at which an individual adopted an innovation.

The five adopter categories were ideal types fabricated to make comparisons, and Rogers recognised these generalisations. There was criticism of the terminology – no one wanted to be considered as a laggard, which was perceived as being a negative label. Table 1.1 shows some of the general characteristics identified, which I have adapted to apply to digital marketing.

The one notable category is that early majority were seen as opinion leaders, an idea which was identified in the two-step flow theory of communications and which reverberates within digital marketing as organisations strive to seek those to influence product adoption.

Rogers generalised that opinion leaders (see Key Term) were more cosmopolitan than their followers. One prescient observation from Rogers was that opinion leaders needed access to mass media and had to be accessible. Think about those opinion leaders with mass followers on YouTube and Twitter – they meet these conditions.

Table 1.1