Essay Example on Diffusion of Innovation: The 5-Stage Process

Introduction

The notion of diffusion is existing. It was initially investigated in the 19th Century by Tarde Gabriel, a French sociologist. Nevertheless, the idea was investigated deeply, starting from the 1920s. The gross and Ryan's work reveals the five-stage process for diffusion if innovation (Ryan, 1943).

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1.1. Stages in the Decision Innovation process

1.1.1. Knowledge

Knowledge is the first step in the diffusion of innovation. This is where the would-be adopter is initially exposed to the innovation itself. The customers do not have enough information about the iVac vacuum cleaner. They need the information to decide on purchasing the product, information that is not yet in existence. At this point, marketers of the iVac will be striving to enhance awareness of the product and avail sufficient education that the targeted adopter advances to the next stage. The prospective customer must find it, "if the customer cannot find it, it does not exist." The iVac is introduced to make it known, a vacuum cleaner, to revolutionize the cleaning sector of the entire home.

1.1.2. Persuasion

This is the stage where the prospective adopter becomes open to the idea of purchasing. The adopters are seeking information actively to inform their final decision. At this point, the marketers should convey the benefits of the iVac vacuum cleaner in detail. A conscious effort is to be made at this stage to sell the product to somebody to reveal in the benefits in reality. The features of the product form a portion of the benefits. The iVac cleaner has the following benefits and features:

• Voice and touch control interface.
• Ability to schedule the cleaning process and sync it to iCal.
• Ability to control it from your iOS device.
• Ability to download apps for adding functionality.

1.1.3. Decision

The prospective adopter makes a decision. They weigh the cons and pros of the product to either reject or accept the innovation. This is the most unclear part of the process of acquiring intelligence. This is due to the nature of people not making rational decisions in many circumstances. They decide based on their underlying feelings and perceptions and corresponding to the decision, and they try to rationalize the decision.

1.1.4. Implementation

The purchasers make the decision, and they are using the product. The user decides whether the product is actually fulfilling their needs. They are seeking more information to facilitate the use of the product and understand the product. The marketers should take the ownership process seriously and do the necessary details. How possible can the user obtain extra information after purchasing it? The implementation quality depends on the quality and ease of accessing information.,

1.1.5. Confirmation

The user evaluates their decision and abandons or continues to use the product. The stage involves a social and personal examination of the product. Social information to be readily availed by marketers.

1.2. Diffusion and Adoption

Adoption involves beginning and continuing to use the product, while diffusion measures the adoption rate. It concerns the relationship not only between the product and any given user but also the relationship of each other and the product, and between all users. Examining social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, and "real life" social networks like getting respected people and working with them to promote the product (Kinnunen, 1996). Also, to enhance the diffusion rate. Marketers can determine a representative group of desired users get positive feedback. Case studies will make other prospective adopters make a decision easily.

2. Application of Social Impact Theory

The Social Impact Theory (SIT) was introduced by Latane (1981) as an array of influences on an individual's behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes. The influences are enforced by real, implied, and imagined actions and the presence of other people. The application of SIT is to enhance consumer engagement for the new vacuum cleaner (iVAc). The constituents of SIT applied are strength, immediacy, and number of sources.

2.1 Strength

The strength of the message will be applied to increase the referral number in social media posts. The influence can be narrowed down into trans-situational and situational message strength.

2.1.1. Situational Strength

This strength derives influence by addressing the scope where the product or its users are present in a manner that enhances the identity and reputation of the product. According to Perez-Vega, Waite, and O'Gorman (2016), situational strength is obtained from selecting relevant actors for the audience; in this case, the iVac vacuum cleaner.

2.1.2 Trans-Situational Strength

The strength, in this case, enhances the salience, for instance, by portraying models with relevant perceived and physical characteristics like intelligence, age, gender, ethnicity, and appearance. The models meet the role of symbolizing youth, maturity, success, and style, whereas attaching such strong features to the products and, finally, their users.

2.2 Immediacy of Message

Message immediacy increases the proximity or presence of information about the product towards its prospective clients. The social media content plan for iVac may apply three types of immediacy to enhance online consumer engagement (OCE) to lure more than 200 referrals.

2.2.1. Physical Immediacy

Physical immediacy increases the post of social media by relating more to its audience due to close geographical proximity (Liberman, & Trope, 2010). Studies discovered that students who are physically close are more possibly to succumb to peer pressure and value and belief sharing than those who are physically less close (Pedersen, 2008). The content plan will use physical proximity to engage and appeal to customers.

2.2.2. Temporal immediacy

This kind of immediacy uses time-related proximity between the recipient and the message. It can be used by marketers to fasten desired responses like purchasing behavior or OCE (Shen, & Chiou, 2010). Increased temporal distance may diminish the social impact; thus, this content plan will target in avoiding this potential risk. The example below can be replicated for the iVac content plan.

2.2.3. Social Immediacy

Social immediacy concerns the need for similarity with other society members. Gain, consumers like to be surrounded by people of the same mind whom they feel a sense of social connection (Miller, Downs, & Prentice, 1998). Strong social immediacy enhances trust and reciprocity between consumers, whereas weak social immediacy disrupts clarity and communication of message between consumer and brand (Rosette et al., 2012; Charness, Haruvy, & Sonsino, 2007). This content plan thus will target to use the discovered phenomenon of social awareness, stating that physical closeness has a positive correlation with social awareness but a negative correlation with promoting a ''self-centered attitude" (Perez-Vega et al., 2016, p.309). The iVac can repost user-generated content on their Instagram feed to reduce the psychological distance between the marketers and their customers.

2.3 Number of Sources

Increasing the number of sources has a positive influence on social impact. Nevertheless, the efficiency of social influence type has been discussed to be limited and with more than three sources causing no increase in social impact (Asch, 1961). Also, this type of influence has varied optimal numbers of sources depending on the situation and content. But generally, exceeding the optimum number is detrimental for forming social impact. One post per day is standard, but intervals must be considered to prevent a lot of information for Instagram and Facebook followers.

3.Example Posts

The earlier stages of the plan will target to encourage potential purchasers of the iVac to share content by rewarding them. A website can be created where registered members get a unique URL link where new users can register and buy the product. Each referral link that makes a purchase grants the voucher to the original advocate. An example can be

"Refer your friends and get a free PS20 gift voucher added to your online iVac wallet for every person who makes an online purchase through your unique referral link!"

Another post can be created to inform consumers of the discount of products bought from the website. Something like

"Receive 20% off of the product purchased from our website."

The post should also show an advantage in the functionality of the product. An example is illustrated by Vax-UK below. The second post shows superiority in design, durability, and quality, which are key influencers for the consumers. The third post focuses on the time of doing the task using the product. All these posts try to persuade the potential purchaser to consider the product being promoted. As much as purchasing power is aimed, the spread of information is also enhanced through posts, which is mostly online but can also be printed and posted in hard copy.

The posts are targeted to engage the customer through social immediacy, temporal, immediacy, and situational strength if groups of persons are sharing and discussing the content to get a chance to win extra than what was offered originally. For the social content plan, the posts will be replicated on Instagram and Facebook, and it is ineffective to host offers exclusively to one platform. This social content plan will, therefore, use integrated or multiple marketing communications.

Promoting a product on the website also has benefits for the marketer and the retailer. You can do selling without setting up a solution for e-commerce. The marketer can consider adding a "call to action' button to invite customers to reserve a product for pick-up on in-store. The needed statistics are minimal for the marketers while adding a factor of convenience to the customers (Lauren, 2017).

4. Customer Response Rate

4.1 Target Metrics

The global vacuum cleaner size of the market was estimated at 9.2 billion US dollars in 2018 but is expected to achieve a CAGR of 9.1% from 2020 to 2025. The market has experienced remarkable growth due to the increase in the population of women working and changes in standards of living of the consumers. The growing awareness of benefits like time-efficiency, convenience, and advantages derived from the products is anticipated to promote the demand for the products (GVR, 2019). The potential customers to be made aware is unlimited since any internet literate person can access social media. The number expected to visit the website is not restricted except for those who are purchasing. If 200 people visit the website, about 10% of them are expected to purchase the product.

4.2 Adjustments to Post

4.2.1. Situational Strength

The plan uses experts to create situational strength. The strategy...