Finding customers for something new
Whenever you launch a new product/service/idea, what’s the most important question that’s at the crux of it all;
How to find users for this new product?
Folks with a marketing background would have at least heard of this law early in their careers. Coming from an engineering background, I had no such privilege; it came to me in the form of a Simon Sinek TED Talk video and later in various entrepreneurship books I read and research I did on innovation.
The law broadly explains how a new product is received in a market.
As you can see, it is a standard bell curve that is split up into different segments:
- Innovators
- Early adopters
- Early Majority
- Late Majority
- Laggards
There is also The Chasm described as the tipping point before any product is accepted by the mass market and it sits snugly between the early adopters and the early majority.
UNTIL YOUR PRODUCT REACHES THE TIPPING POINT, YOU CAN’T ACHIEVE MARKET PENETRATION. SO YOUR WORK IS CUT OUT — FIND YOUR EARLY ADOPTERS AND MANIACALLY FOCUS ON THEM.
So who are these Innovators/Early adopters? These are people who share the same value system as you do. They won’t beat you down on price. Occasionally they’ll also accept sub par customer service. It’s the common belief system which they have with you which keeps them engaged. Why artists/musicians were always drawn to Apple products at first? They shared the same iconoclastic beliefs that Apple had. Why folks want to be the first ones at midnight in the theater to watch the new Star Wars movie when they can watch it the following week at a decent time?
Here are some other characteristics:
- They’re actively looking for a competitive edge;
- They have the ability to find new uses for a technology;
- Early adopters seek out and sign up for early trials and betas;
- They like to be unique and share new products (it makes them feel good);
- Sometimes they exert some kind of technological leadership in their companies (although they may not be in a leadership position);
- They will use a product that isn’t complete.
Early adopters are so important that, in an initial phase, the whole product will be crafted around them, so that the idea can get enough traction and validation with them and then scale up to attract a broader customer base. Launching a new idea is like climbing a very high mountain, you’ve got to make a first step.
That first step is your early adopters.
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