Consumer Innovators : The Key to New Product Success

“New Products Will Be Key to Growth of Economy, Interpublic Study Finds,” Printers' Ink, Jan. 8, 1965, p. 50.

Weiner Richard , “3M and P&G: A Pair of Triumphs,” Printers' Ink, May 29, 1964, p. 123.

Rogers Everett M. , Diffusion of Innovations (New York: The Free Press, 1962.)

Coleman James S. Katz Elihu Menzel Herbert , Medical Innovation: A Diffusion Study (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1966.)

Bell William E. , “Consumer Innovators: A Unique Market for Newness,” in Proceedings of the Winter Conference of the American Marketing Association, ed. Greyser Stephen A. (Chicago: 1963), pp. 85–95; Frank Ronald E. Massy William F. , “Innovation and Brand Choice: The Folger's Invasion,” ibid., pp. 96–107; King Charles W. , “Fashion Adoption: A Rebuttal to the ‘Trickle Down’ Theory,” ibid., pp. 108–125; and, America's Tastemakers (Princeton: Opinion Research Corporation, 1959).

Frank Massy , op. cit., p. 105.

Coleman Katz Menzel , op. cit., p. 37.

America's Tastemakers, p. 65.

Rogers Everett M. , “Characteristics of Agricultural Innovators and Other Adopter Categories,” in Studies of Innovation and of Communication to the Public, ed. Schramm Wilbur (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1962), p. 92.

Coleman Katz Menzel , op cit., pp. 37, 95.

See, for example, Cunningham Scott M. , “Perceived Risk as a Factor in the Diffusion of New Product Information,” in Fall Conference Proceedings of The American Marketing Association, ed. Haas Raymond M. (Chicago: 1966), pp. 698–721.

Merton Robert K. , Social Theory and Social Structure (rev. ed.; New York: The Free Press, 1957), p. 392.

Lipset Seymour Martin Bendix Reinhard , Social Mobility in Industrial Society (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1959), pp. 1–2.

Coleman Richard P. , “The Significance of Social Stratification in Selling,” in Proceedings of the 43rd National Conference of the American Marketing Association, ed. Bell Martin L. (Chicago: 1960), pp. 171–184.

A factor not investigated in the present research is whether the effect of these five characteristics would change across different product categories. Research on a range of innovations is needed.