Social Change and the Technology Adoption Lifecycle

Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore is a classic book focused on the marketing challenges that technology companies face as they move along the technology adoption life cycle—from products sought out by early adopters to those achieving widespread adoption by mainstream customers. The five types of buyers—innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards—all have specific needs, goals, and traits that influence their buying decisions. But this framework isn’t limited solely to technology companies. I see numerous parallels within the nonprofit sector. We’ll look at each one of the various buyers and explore brand and communication strategies that nonprofits can use to address their own challenges communicating with supporters, funders, and partners as their ideas and missions grow and gain traction.

The strategies and communication frames that organizations use to get buy-in will differ greatly across the types of buyers. Early adopters and innovators are willing to take risks and focus on the potential of new approaches. Mainstream supporters, however, are more risk-averse and want proven, mostly complete solutions. In the voluntary sector, there’s a similar spectrum of funders and supporters—some are willing to take a risk and others prefer to fund proven solutions. The key is to consider (1) what your buyer values and the level of risk they’re comfortable with, (2) where a program or idea stands in its development and evolution—and being clear about where it’s going next.

Ultimately, nonprofits are selling a vision for the future and they need to cross the chasm to get widespread support, but they can face challenges addressing these mainstream audiences. Many of the organizations I’ve worked with say that the general public is a key audience, but they’re not sure how to engage them. The public will have its own spectrum of supporters—from innovators to laggards—and we’ll see that gaining their trust and support through marketing and communication can use similar strategies as those technology companies use to address the needs of different types of buyers.

“Innovators pursue new technology products aggressively. They sometimes seek them out even before a formal marketing program has been launched. This is because technology is a central interest in their life, regardless of what function it is performing.”

Similarly for nonprofits, Innovators will seek you out, so you need to be easy to find. These are often foundations and major donors specifically looking to fund novel approaches to solve large societal challenges. Though there will always be fewer Innovators, their endorsement can provide important reassurance for others. They need to see how your unique approach effectively solves these challenges and they’ll gladly help refine you learn and grow.

To engage the Innovator:

• Highlight the uniqueness of your organization’s approach in your messaging and communications. Make it clear why the approach is effective and different from other solutions.
• As a strategy, the brand should be willing to take risks and maintain complete transparency with these types of funders and supporters.
• Find a place in your audience personas for the Innovators if they don’t exist. Remember that there’s always an exchange of value between an organization and its audiences. Figure out how they can help you grow.

“Early adopters, like innovators, buy into new product concepts very early in their life cycle, but unlike innovators, they are not technologists. Rather they are people who find it easy to imagine, understand, and appreciate the benefits of a new technology, and to relate these potential benefits to their other concerns. Whenever they find a strong match, early adopters are willing to base their buying decisions upon it.”

For nonprofits, Early Adopters frequently look like institutional supporters who recognize the potential in your approach to advance their own missions. They’re less interested in innovation for innovation’s sake and more focused on seeing the potential tied to their own vision. While they want to see proof of effectiveness, they’re willing to take calculated risks on promising approaches.

To engage the Early Adopter:

• Highlight the larger movements your organization helps to support in ways that deepen its purpose.
• Consider collaborating with Early Adopters to co-author case studies or white papers.
• Ensure your vision is clear and that it paints a vivid picture of what the world looks like in the future.

“The early majority share some of the early adopter’s ability to relate to technology, but ultimately they are driven by a strong sense of practicality. They know that many of these newfangled inventions end up as passing fads, so they are content to wait and see how other people are making out before they buy in themselves. They want to see well-established references before investing substantially.”

Moving from Early Adopters to capturing the Early Majority represents the gap that businsses (and nonprofits) must cross to ensure widespread adoption. This group might include mid-sized foundations, corporate partners, and individual donors who want evidence of impact before committing. They need to understand your approach thoroughly and see that others have already validated and endorsed.

To engage the Early Majority:

• Use case studies and impact stories to highlight your solution’s effectiveness. Use ethical storytelling principles and lived experience to help people see real impacts.
• From a brand perspective, focus on helping people learn and understand, recognizing this as essential to gaining widespread adoption.
• Leverage the power of social proof—and aspirational value—in building support for your organization.

“The late majority shares all the concerns of the early majority, plus one major additional one: Whereas people in the early majority are comfortable with their ability to handle a technology product, should they finally decide to purchase it, members of the late majority are not. As a result, they wait until something has become an established standard, and even then they want to see lots of support and tend to buy, therefore, from large, well-established companies.”

The Late Majority comprises most individual donors and smaller institutional supporters. They prefer to support established organizations and proven approaches. This group needs clear, simple messaging about your impact and strong evidence that your approach works. It’s important to balance a message of safety for this audience without discounting the organization’s bold vision.

To engage the Late Majority:

• Ensure your brand messaging can be adjusted for different audiences while maintaining clarity and simplicity. In fact, include messaging specifically for the Late Majority.
• If you’ve established a widely-supported standard of excellence, make that clear in your communications. The power of social proof works here, too.

“Finally there are the laggards. These people simply don’t want anything to do with new technology, for any of a variety of reasons, some personal and some economic. The only time they ever buy a technological product is when it is buried deep inside another product—the way, say, that a microprocessor is designed into the braking system of a new car—such that they don’t even know it is there. From a market development perspective laggards are generally regarded as not worth pursuing on any other basis.”

Convincing skeptical audiences to support your work usually isn’t worth the investment of time and resources. Focus instead on moving supporters through the earlier stages of adoption.

For nonprofits, there are clear parallels between technology adoption and building support for social change. The key is ensuring you can address different interests—and levels of risk tolerance—from supporters, partners, and funders. This means anticipating audience needs and building relationships through strategic brand messaging and communications for each group.