Answer
We are living in a world that is most unstable and dynamic. World is not only changing but the rate of change is accelerating. We are experiencing change in our daily life and in marketplace too. Consumers needs, wants, expectations are changing more rapidly; consumers are increasingly demanding better quality and reliability in products and services; consumers desire for more personalised services is increasing; consumers are becoming more social, more time efficient, more demanding , and more selective.
The business organisations are required to identify different types of consumers/buyers in their target market and understand the changes in their buying behaviour. It enables business organisations to make desired products or services available in the marker, so that, new customers can be attracted and existing customers can be retained.
Today, in this post we are describing the different types of consumers/buyers that exists within every market for new products and general classification of buyers for existing products.
Types of buyers for new products
- Innovators
- Early Adopters
- Early majority
- Late Majority
- Laggards
Innovators
This group of buyers read journals and magazines extensively to keep themselves updated with innovative ideas, latest technologies, and new products. They like to experiment with anything new representing the latest technologies. They may influence other buyers in their same group, but they are the smallest group of early buyers. They represent about 2 percent of any market.
Early Adopters
This group of buyers read journals and magazines extensively to keep themselves updated with innovative ideas, latest technologies, and new products. They like to experiment with anything new representing the latest technologies. They may influence other buyers in their same group, but they are the smallest group of early buyers. They represent about 2 percent of any market.
Early Adopters
They are individuals or businesses who uses new product or technology after innovators and before others. This group of buyers represents true opinion leaders who set examples by their decisions. They are likely to pay more for new product that improve their life-style, raise their social status, or improve their business efficiency or reduce cost. They represent about 14 percent of any market.
Early Majority
This group of people adopt a new product after seeing it used successfully by innovators and adopters. They are more conservative but open to new ideas, active in community, less technology-driven than innovators and early adopters. They represent 34 percent of any market.
Late Majority
This group of people adopt a new product only after seeing that the majority of the population already has. They wait until prices fall and product is universally accepted. People of this group are typically old, less affluent, less educated, fairly conservative, and less socially active than innovators, adopters, and early majority. They also represent 34 percent of any market.
Laggards
The people of this group are excessive traditionalists. They adopt product when the price is at its bottom, competition is intense, or product become an absolute need. They are very conservative, oldest, and least educated. They represent 16 percent of any market.
Early Majority
This group of people adopt a new product after seeing it used successfully by innovators and adopters. They are more conservative but open to new ideas, active in community, less technology-driven than innovators and early adopters. They represent 34 percent of any market.
Late Majority
This group of people adopt a new product only after seeing that the majority of the population already has. They wait until prices fall and product is universally accepted. People of this group are typically old, less affluent, less educated, fairly conservative, and less socially active than innovators, adopters, and early majority. They also represent 34 percent of any market.
Laggards
The people of this group are excessive traditionalists. They adopt product when the price is at its bottom, competition is intense, or product become an absolute need. They are very conservative, oldest, and least educated. They represent 16 percent of any market.
General classification of consumers
- Personal Consumers
- Organisational Consumers
- Impulse Consumers
- Need-based Consumers
- Discount Driven Consumers
- Habitual Consumers
This type of consumer is an individual consumer who buy products or services for own use, or for family, or for household use. Finished products are purchased by personal consumer and the purchases are done in small quantities.
Organisational Consumers
This type of consumer can be a business, government, profit or non-profit organisation, or agency who purchases goods or services for organisation to function or for resale purpose. Purchases are done in the form of raw-materials that are processed to finished goods and offered for sale to other consumers.
Impulse Consumers
This type of consumer do unplanned purchases. Purchasing a particular product was not a priority, but when the consumer encounter that product, he makes swift buying decision. Impulse consumer purchase what seems good at the time.
Need Based Consumer
This type of consumer has a specific intention to purchase a particular type of product. Need-based Consumer is driven by a specific need. He makes buying decision when he actually need that product and not any other time.
Discount Driven Consumers
This type of consumers do purchases when they get some lucrative offer or discount. Their buying decision is highly based on offers or discounts.
Habitual Consumers
Person who is habitual to the usage or consumption of a kind of product is called habitual consumer. For example - person who smoke.