Do you want to launch a brand-new product or service and take off in the market? However, in this age of message overload, grabbing your prospects’ attention is no easy task. How can you make your product or service a rare commodity that everyone wants? How can you change deeply rooted habits? We suggest relying on the new product diffusion curve, explained by Everett Rogers and later revisited by Geoffrey Moore, to provide you with ideas and answers. Discover here a few secrets to catch your prospects’ eye.

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From Rogers’ new product diffusion curve to the gap identified by Moore

It all began when sociologist and statistician Everett Rogers introduced a theory in his 1962 book Diffusion of Innovations. The objective: to identify the different categories of consumers when an innovation is launched. He distinguished 5 groups: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Since each group buys at a different pace, it is important for marketing, communications, and sales teams to understand the behaviors of these 5 targets in order to convince them to try the product. Even today, this bell curve remains a reference for professionals.

In 1991, Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm, built on Rogers’ work to push the reasoning further. He highlighted what he called the “chasm.” He thus asserted that there is a gap between early adopters and the early majority. As a result, once an innovation has been fully adopted by innovators and early adopters, it leaves the niche market to move into a mass market. This transition is a key moment because whether it is crossed or not determines the failure or success of the innovation.

5 groups with different relationships to innovation

• Innovators: They represent nearly 2.5% of the market. These are novelty enthusiasts. Autonomous in their decisions, they buy as soon as the product or service is released. Their deep convictions guide them. Among them are opinion leaders recognized in the product or service field through their profession, passion, or involvement.

• Early adopters: They represent 13.5%. Sensitive to new things and eager to be among the first, they purchase a product within hours or days after launch. Concretely, these are “customers proud to say they were in the Apple line when the new iPhone came out.” They are the internet users proud to say they followed an influencer—now very popular—when they had fewer than 10K followers. Having been there from the start and spotting a trend before everyone else greatly appeals to them.

• Early majority: Representing 34% of the market population, they make thoughtful purchases and wait for feedback from first experiences before buying a newly released product or service. So they wait until early adopters have already used it and validated the product before following.
  
  

• Late majority: The late majority also represents 34% of the market. They buy after the early majority has adopted the product or service. As followers, they need concrete arguments and therefore proof showing them they are not wasting their time.
  
  

• Laggards: This is the 3rd group in percentage terms, as they represent 16% of the market. They are the last to buy. They test the product or service if, and only if, usage has become a tradition and they cannot do otherwise.

5 success factors to break into the market

Communication aimed at innovators and early adopters

To make their product or service known, some companies prefer to target their core segment, meaning the majority of people likely to buy. But by communicating to the early and late majority, they fail to communicate with innovators and early adopters. Yet these groups have strong influence because they reassure the majority and encourage them to purchase. It is therefore essential that you address these demanding consumers, both in terms of product (or service) quality and meaning. Thus, wanting to communicate with everyone means risking not communicating with your niche segment, and ultimately not reaching your main target. Keep in mind a quote by Sacha Guitry, when trying to convince or persuade a group or an individual: “To please everyone is to please anyone.”

How do you reach innovators and early adopters? By highlighting values that are unique to you and important to them, by valuing their involvement, and by explaining what you are going to bring to the world. Take the example of ideas launched in crowdfunding, where only innovators and early adopters are present. If your plan is to launch a concept store, since your products are not yet designed, you will communicate about the potential revolution in consumption habits in order to win them over.

Powerful word of mouth

If we return to Moore’s diffusion curve, an innovation capable of reaching innovators and early adopters can reach a large audience. The crowd attracts the crowd! See how films that generate a high number of admissions increase people’s desire to watch them. Remember the film Intouchables, released in November 2011, which drew more than 19 million admissions and even ranked second at the French box office. Even if you didn’t see it in theaters, you probably know at least one person around you who has seen it. Because of its reach and intense media coverage, it was hard to miss!

The greater the number of people won over by a product or service, the more their behavior intrigues others. This is the mass effect, or more specifically the law of social proof, defined by Robert Cialdini in Influence and Manipulation. In his book, he explains that the more people behave in a certain way, the more we want to imitate them. Thus, the more numerous and positive customer testimonials and reviews are for a brand, the more this proof reassures us. When you see more than 5 million downloads for an app with a rating of 4.5 out of 5 or higher, your opinion of the app will be favorable and your desire to download it greater.

Moreover, if you want to learn more about social proof and discover Cialdini’s 5 other principles, we offer practical applications during our Seven training courses.

Innovation based on simple use and problem-solving

Offering an innovative product or service inevitably means disrupting users’ original lifestyles. Before vacuum cleaners appeared on the market, dust was removed differently and a broom was enough. Before Uber was created, users found other ways to get from one place to another easily. Before the Yuka app launched, internet users did their own product research. But when vacuum cleaners, Uber, or Yuka arrived, consumers changed their habits for new ones. The majority let innovators and early adopters try first, then once the product or service quality was validated and the problem-solving confirmed, they followed.

A market with limited choice

If you communicate in a highly competitive market, it will be difficult to stand out with a weakly differentiated offer. By offering too many choices for a specific problem, decision-making becomes harder. Barry Schwartz talks about the paradox of choice. This psychologist explains that by reducing choices, the number of people who make a purchase increases.

Scarcity that drives a sense of urgency

To win over the greatest number, there is an infallible weapon of attraction: scarcity. A product or service available in limited quantity or for a short period will catch consumers’ attention. If they don’t want to miss out, they will have no choice but to react quickly. We mentioned FOBO earlier; let us enrich your acronym jargon with a second one: FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). This is the fear of missing something—information, an event, a person—because you might be excluded from a group or miss the chance of a lifetime! If you check your notifications immediately, use apps to join communities, and keep informed on many topics so as not to miss anything, you probably suffer from FOMO! Don’t worry, many of us do!

Besides, if you already know the acronym FOMO, it means your fear of missing information pushed you to investigate the topic! The social network Clubhouse knew how to use this FOMO strategy and first won over innovators and early adopters to enter the market. But above all, it succeeded in getting people talking by being available exclusively on iOS (its Android presence should not be long in coming). A social network everyone talks about (more than 9 million downloads), combined with scarcity of use, created intrigue. The question remains whether they will continue their growth!

Every company has its own strategy for breaking into the market and winning over its innovators and early adopters. Studying their profiles, launching innovation at the right time, and spreading a relevant message: these are the keys to winning over your targets. In short, deliver the right message at the right time to the right people, and you will win your prospects’ support!