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December 13, 2008
Web 2.0 Adoption Matrix
Recently, I watched a client rationalize the "safe" choice among marketing strategies presented to them. That got me thinking about the ways that many companies approach the adoption of new techniques and tools, including Web 2.0 marketing techniques. Throughout my career, I have been consistenly amazed at how much inertia exists in marketing departments -- tremendous resistance to change rooted in the comfort of current knowledge. While I understand the foundation in human psychology, I always think marketing people should know better.
With that in mind, I set out to find a simple idea that would help clients visualize their acceptance of new ideas. The following matrix is a first pass:
The axes on the chart reflect the urgency of change as dicated by the speed of evolution in the market (e.g. publishers have a high urgency) charted against the organizational openness to test new ideas and implement new techniques.
In the lower left, the "Myopic" (e.g. ExxonMobil) don't see the need for change and are commensurately closed-minded about new technologies. In the lower right, the "Innovators" (e.g. P&G, IBM) don't have to change immediately, yet are continually testing new ideas because they know that change is a constant. In the upper left, "Challenged" is the home for the vast majority of companies including big pharma, many name-brand manufacturers and most publishers. This is where the need for change is great, but the attraction of "status quo" techniques (e.g. the "big idea" and the 30-second spot) remains powerful. And finally, the upper right, "Adaptors" are rolling out new ideas because they have been forced into it by overwhelming change (e.g. NY Times).
With marketing being an increasingly mission-critical task in companies (it is the gatekeeper for customer conversations), understanding where your company is on this chart is a valuable reminder of the potential need to rethink the "safe" choice in favor of the idea that may help you breakthhrough and better engage customers in your evolving markets.
Posted by jcioban at December 13, 2008 11:53 AM
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