One of the things I have recently realized is that companies will always be building better and better products, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is going to use them. Take myself for example. I bought a license of a product called Snagit probably 6 or more years ago. Every time I open it, it tells me that there is a new version. Just go pay $25 and it’s mine with all the new features. The problem is that I don’t need any new features. Everything delivered in the old version meets my needs. Now, on the other hand, I have friends that every time a new Apple product is released, he need to have it right away even if he doesn’t need it. This brought me back to something I heard a while ago (and happily it stuck). There are different types of customers. I might be getting this wrong, but I think it’s broken into 4 different groups.
- The early adopters – they need the latest and greatest. ALWAYS. end of story. They aren’t afraid of dealing with bugs or glitches in exchange for the latest version
- 2nd Wave. They aren’t on the bleeding edge of technology, but are willing to buy into the new stuff once it’s proven and stable. this could be weeks, months or even years, depending on the customer.
- The late adopters – these are the customers that are happy with what they have, but will eventually move to something newer, but typically they will always be multiple releases behind the new stuff and often need a push (like it will no longer be supported or something similar). They want things proven and they want to know the money they spend will give them something beyond what they already have.
- The never adopters. These are the people that have what they want and unless it breaks or stop working will never upgrade or buy a new version. Even if it breaks, they may go looking for ways to fix it, or buy the same older version because it met their needs and they feel comfortable with the version. Change is painful for theses guys.
Now, it all depends on what you are selling. Because any one person can be all 4 of these customers, depending on the product. For example, myself, I still love new, fast laptops and usually buy a new one every 18-24 months (even though I don’t need it), but I still have my same DLP TV that I bought over 10 ago in my media room and have no plans to replace it until it dies. I replace my iphone every 2-3 years or until it no longer runs. I just recently converted my DVD’s to be digital (but I don’t have a VCR in the house 🙂 ), and I still appreciate old School SAP ECC. So as you can see, I’m all over the board depending on the product/technology.
You job as a marketer is to figure out your product, and where people fit into the mix. And more importantly, make sure that at least one of these customer groups is willing to buy what your offering.
Thanks for reading,
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,Mike