Are you about to launch an innovative business idea or are you planning to? If you don’t know what the Rogers Curve is, perhaps you should take some more time and read the next few lines. Let’s find out together right now what it is and what it is used for.
What is the Rogers Curve?
Given the impact of technological innovations in the business environment, the Rogers Curve, which describes the different categories of users of innovations, is a model that every entrepreneur should be familiar with.
Also known as the Rogers Innovation Curve or Innovation Adoption Curve, the Rogers Curve, as just mentioned, is a model devised by sociologist Everett Rogers in 1962 that illustrates the different types of users of innovations, distinguishing them according to their propensity to adopt new ideas, objects or technologies.
Graphically, the “degree of innovativeness” that defines different categories of users outlines a bell-shaped curve, called the “Adoption Bell Curve.”
The types of users of innovations identified by Rogers are:
- Innovators.
- Early Adopters.
- Early Majority.
- Late Majority.
- Laggards.
The 5 categories and the percentage of individuals within society associated with them are placed on the Rogers Curve following a precise order: at the beginning of the graph, starting from the left, are the Innovators (equal to 2.5 percent of the members of a social system) and followed, toward the right, by the Early Adopters (13.5 percent), the Early Majority (34 percent), the Late Majority (34 percent), and the Laggards (16 percent).
The 5 consumer segments in the Rogers Curve
The 5 consumer segments identified by Rogers have specific characteristics that distinguish them. Let’s see what they are.
Innovators and Early Adopters
Innovators are the first users of an innovation and, in the context of purchasing new products or services, are the first consumers to buy the innovative products that have just been launched in the market.
Their main characteristic is their high appetite for risk: these individuals are willing to invest sooner and more than others in order to be on the cutting edge, and they are also willing to accept that one of the innovations they adopt will later prove to be a failure.
Early Adopters are the individuals who adopt an idea or purchase a product or service soon after Innovators. Their appetite for risk is not as high as that of Innovators, and their interest in innovative ideas is linked to the advantages and benefits associated with them.
Crossing the Chasm: bridging the gap between Early Adopters and Early Majority
Three other consumer segments remain to be described. That of the Early Majority is a category of individuals composed of individuals who are interested in adopting an innovation but have longer decision-making times than the previous categories. They want to be “sure” of their advantages and benefits before purchasing new products or services.
The Late Majority is made up of individuals defined by Rogers as “skeptical,” in that they are more wary: the impetus to purchase, in this case, also and above all derives from social pressure, related to the fact that, before them, many consumers have already purchased that particular product or service.
Laggards are the last people to adopt innovation: by the time they finally decide to purchase the new product or service, it may already be outdated.
Now there is an important clarification to make: the model described by Rogers in the 1960s has been taken up and revised by several authors, including Geoffrey Moore within his book “Crossing the Chasm“.
But what “chasm” is Moore talking about? It is the one between the Early Adopters and the Early Majority: in fact, according to Moore, there is a big difference between the first two categories of consumers identified by Rogers (considered more visionary and open to adopting innovations) and the last three (more skeptical and wary).
The chasm just mentioned, according to Moore’s theory, is precisely what prevents many innovations from being adopted by the masses. To overcome it, you can adopt ad hoc strategies, such as, for example, focusing on a niche segment, building a network of alliances and partners, and creating a so-called “whole product” (i.e., offering a complete package that goes beyond the single product by offering additional services).
Marketing strategies for each segment
You should know that Everett Rogers did not just identify the 5 categories of users of innovations: he also described a 5-step model related to how a person comes to make the decision to use a new product or service.
The steps are:
- Knowledge: this is the stage when people learn about the existence of a new product/service and begin to understand what it might be about.
- Persuasion: this is when people begin to develop a positive attitude toward the product/service.
- Decision: when people have to make the decision whether or not to buy the product/service.
- Implementation: this is the stage when the new product/service is finally used.
- Confirmation: even after use, people continue to look for information that can confirm the goodness of the decision they made.
That’s not all: Everett Rogers also identified the 5 factors that can influence the process just described.
These 5 “levers” for maximizing results are:
- Relative advantage: when a product/service is considered more advantageous than the one previously used.
- Compatibility: when a product/service is perceived to be compatible with consumers’ prior experiences and needs.
- Complexity: when a product/service is considered difficult to understand and use.
- The possibility of experimentation: the ability to test the product/service reduces the degree of uncertainty for those who are still considering purchasing it.
- Observability: when the results or benefits of using the product/service are visible and tangible.
Based on these five factors, Everett Rogers concluded that the more visible benefits a product/service has, the more compatible it is with experiences and needs, the more testable it is before purchase, and the less complex it is, the more easily and quickly it can be adopted.
Having made this series of due diligence, it is important that you now know specifically what strategies to adopt for each marketing segment identified by Rogers.
Let’s start with Innovators: for companies, they are especially valuable because their feedback is decisive in optimizing newly launched products or services. There is a problem, however: numerically they are few in number. You can find them among readers of blogs and trade press and in themed online groups.
Early Adopters, within the social system, are the most influential individuals because it is to them that potential users turn for advice and information about innovations. You can win them over by presenting them with case studies and testimonials from satisfied innovators.
High-range communication campaigns are the most suitable strategy for targeting the Early Majority, which represents the majority of the general public.
The Late Majority, on the other hand, seeks ease of purchase and convenience: for these reasons, you would do well to be present on different sales platforms and different advertising channels.
Finally, with regard to the Laggards, because of their previously described characteristics, the best strategy is to forgo investing in them-they are not a good audience to win over, partly because their influence is limited.
Practical applications of the Rogers Curve in modern marketing
We have already highlighted the fact that several authors have revised the Rogers Curve over time. In addition to the aforementioned Moore, Seth Godin, in 2015, also proposed an alternative solution consisting of 6 steps that define the process that leads a person to accept and adopt an innovation.
The steps are:
- Fringe: the adoption of innovation by a niche of people.
- Risky: the time when the innovation is still little known but is beginning to be appreciated by other individuals, despite still being considered “risky.”
- New: the stage when the innovation is discovered by influencers, who make it known within their community of followers.
- Hot: when the innovation is accepted by a large number of people and becomes “trendy.”
- Mass: when most people adopt innovation.
- Always: the last stage, in which the masses exert strong social pressure on those few who have not yet adopted the innovation.
The Rogers Curve and subsequent revisions are now the benchmark for all companies planning to launch a new product or service into the market, since, as we have seen, it provides a better understanding of the different types of consumers and the best way to approach each category based on their greater or lesser propensity to buy.
The Role of the Rogers Curve in Startup Innovation
Understanding how consumers approach new products or services becomes, of course, even more crucial for innovative startups, i.e., those particular companies that stand out for their high technological value, as well as for having a business model capable of registering rapid growth and creating value and progress for the entire ecosystem.
How Startups Can Leverage Every Phase of the Curve
Startups can leverage the Rogers Curve to promote marketing strategies and develop products and services that take into account the new needs and desires of consumers, who are now increasingly demanding. But how?
One way is to encourage consumers to take an active part in the development of innovation and, where possible, in the design of the product/service itself.
Listening to users, however, is not enough: you also need to challenge yourself so that you are ready to take advantage of all the opportunities in the marketplace. Remember the words of Robin Sharma:
“Change is difficult in the beginning, messy in the middle and splendid in the end.”
Another aspect to consider in harnessing individuals’ propensity for innovation is communication: it is crucial to promote conversations around the brand and product/service because, they represent the only way to spread the adoption of that innovation among the general public.
Is the Rogers Curve still relevant today?
In this guide dedicated to the Rogers Curve, we have mentioned it several times but it is useful to reiterate: over the years the model described by Everett Rogers in 1962 has been revised and refined by adapting it to changes in the market and the consumer world. For this reason, the Rogers Curve is still able to allow us to segment consumers according to their propensity to adopt innovation and to understand how innovation spreads within the market.
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