DISCUSS THE AIETA MODEL AS PRESENTED BY EVERETT ROGERS IN HIS WORK ENTITLED “DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION”

Innovation and diffusion is a theory propounded by Everett Rogers in 1962. This theory puts society into categories based on how quickly its members adopt to a new product or service. However, the theory seeks to explain how, why and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. Diffusion as defined by Gorge Orr (2003) is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system (5).  Given that decisions are not authoritative or collective, each member of the social system faces his/her own innovation-decision that follows a 5-step process (162):
1)Knowledge –  It starts with a person becoming aware of an innovation and has some idea of how it functions,
2 Persuasion – Then moves on to the person forming a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward the innovation,
3) Decision – Here, a person engages in activities that lead to a choice to adopt or reject the innovation,
4)Implementation –  This is a stage where person puts an innovation into use,
5)Confirmation –Finally, the person evaluates the results of an innovation-decision already made.
 The most striking feature of the diffusion theory is that, for most members of a social system, the innovation-decision depends heavily on the innovation-decisions of the other members of the system. Each individual’s innovation-decision is largely framed by personal characteristics, and this diversity is what makes diffusion possible.  For a successful innovation, the adopter distributions follow a bell-shaped curve, the derivative of the S-shaped diffusion curve, over time and approach normality (257).  Diffusion scholars divide this bell-shaped curve to characterize five categories of system member innovativeness, where innovativeness is defined as the degree to which an individual is relatively earlier in adopting new ideas than other members of a system.  These groups are: 1) innovators, 2) early adopters, 3) early majority, 4) late majority, and 5) laggards (262).    

For decades, marketing analysts have studied the behavior of prospects and customers in an attempt to determine the process of getting from awareness to adoption. That is from first hearing about your product preference and satisfaction. One widely accepted model is the AIETA model.it simply is an adoption model to enhance the purchasing and usage of products. According to this model, prospects progress along a continuum in the following steps: 

These two models suggest that there is a series of stages between the point of unawareness of a product and/or brand and the ultimate purchase/sales of a particular brand proponent and therefore go hand-in-hand.
With the innovation diffusion model, if a new product is introduced to a market, the innovators may be the only ones aware of the product. If the product is a new product class, the innovators may not know what the product uses are. This is where the A which stands for awareness creation of the AIETA fits. Here the innovators or prospects learns of the product but knows nothing about it beyond its existence and some idea of its benefits. They are said to be venturesome, educated, risk takers among others. Also, there is always a communication task to be performed at the introduction of a new product, the communication task here is to create awareness and plant the brand such as ‘Aperitif Alcoholic Drink’ in the minds of its target audience. At this stage, a group of consumers who are likely to purchase the product are the Innovators: this group are risk takers and are likely to do so at the introduction of a new product.

After the awareness has been created, the prospect becomes interested, seeks information and begins to gather details on the product. This is where we have the people termed “the early adopters “who have many opinion/social leaders in their rank. Many of them willingly pass the information about the product gathered to other people after getting interest. Here, the Advertisement must generate interest, the content must be unique, desiring and appealing, and at the interest generating stage and Early Adopters are types of consumers who are likely to purchase the product this increases the size of market share when especially both elements are working accordingly.
The prospects after gaining interest imagines him or herself using the product. At this point, question such as “can I do it?”, “can I see myself as the owner of this product?” and many others are asked at this stage. Once the early adopters have tried and given their approval or evaluation to a product, the early majority will begin to follow. These consumers include many informal social contacts. Consumers or audience make their own judgment about a product and therefore impressions will be created, when impressions are positive, then we have the Early Majority adding up to a company’s market share.

Evaluation however leads to trial. Here, the prospects experiments with the product on a small scale in an effort to become intimate with it and learn how to use it to his or her advantage. Here, the late majority considers its use, they are skeptical, traditional and have lower socio-economic status, so they typically wait to see the product tried and approved before they use it. Consumers or audience make their own judgment about a product and therefore impressions will be created, when impressions are positive, then we have the Early Majority adding up to a company’s market share.

Finally is the adoption stage where consumers/prospects begin large-scale use, which hopefully leads to preference, satisfaction and repeat purchases. The laggards who are generally fearful about trying new things even adopt this product at this stage because that is what most people are using and also because the alternate product is no longer being produced.  At this stage there will be adoption of the product, the Laggards try to adopt the product, the Laggards are  sometimes called Loyal Customers, but very difficult to be convinced, but once they are convinced, a company will be in a ‘good business’.

REFERENCES
1.    Diffusion of Innovations by Everett Rogers 1983 (3rd Edition)
2.    Greg Orr (2003)
3.    Paul Krugman’s 1977 (18) AIETA Model
4.    http://www.5metacom.com/documents/marketing_elements/marketing_elements-adoption_model.pdf
5.    classes.seattleu.edu/business/mktg350/obermiller/promotion1.stu.ppt
6.    http://www.stanford.edu/class/symbsys205/Diffusion%20of%20Innovations.htm


LEVEL 300
KUMASSAH CHRISTINE MAKAFUI
BACP 2014021